382 



BUD-VARIATION. 



Chap. XI. 



on a dingy-purple, double variety of the wall-flower (Cheiranthus cheiri) 

 a branch which had reverted to the ordinary copper colour. On other 

 branches of the same plant, some flowers were exactly divided across 

 the middle, one half being purple and the other coppery; but some of the 

 smaller petals towards the centre of these same flowers were purple longi- 

 tudinally streaked with coppery colour, or coppery streakedwith purple. 

 A Cyclamen 52 has been observed to bear white and pink flowers of two forms, 

 the one resembling the Persicum strain, and the other the Coum strain. 

 Oenothera biennis has been seen 53 bearing flowers of three different colours. 

 The hybrid Gladiolus colviUU occasionally bears uniformly coloured flowers, 

 and one case is recorded 54 of all the flowers on a plant thus changing 

 colour. A Fuchsia has been seen 55 bearing two kinds of flowers. MirabiUs 

 jalapa is eminently sportive, sometimes bearing on the same root pure red, 

 yellow, and white flowers, and others striped with various combinations of 

 these three colours. 56 The plants of the Mirabilis which bear such extra- 

 ordinarily variable flowers, in most, probably in all cases, owe their origin, 

 as shown by Prof. Lecoq, to crosses between differently-coloured varieties. 



Leaves and Shoots. — Changes, through bud-variation, in fruits and flowers 

 have hitherto been treated of, but incidentally some remarkable modifica- 

 tions in the leaves and shoots of the rose and Cistus, and in a lesser 

 degree in the foliage of the Pelargonium and Chrysanthemum, have been 

 noticed. I will now add a few more cases of variation in leaf-buds. Verlot 57 

 states that on Aralia trifoliata, which properly has leaves with three 

 leaflets, branches bearing simple leaves of various forms frequently appear ; 

 these can be propagated by buds or grafting, and have given rise, as he 

 states, to several nominal species. 



With respect to trees, the history of but few of the many varieties 

 with curious or ornamental foliage is known; but several probably 

 have [originated by bud-variation. Here is one case : — An old ash-tree 

 (Fraxinus excelsior) in the grounds of Necton, as Mr. Mason states, " for 

 many years has had one bough of a totally different character to the rest 

 of the tree, or of any other ash-tree which I have seen ; being short-jointed 

 and densely covered with foliage." It was ascertained that this variety 

 could be propagated by grafts. 58 The varieties of some trees with cut 

 leaves, as the oak-leaved laburnum, the parsley-leaved vine, and especially 

 the fern-leaved beech, are apt to revert by buds to the common form. 69 

 The fern-like leaves of the beech sometimes revert only partially, and the 

 branches display here and there sprouts bearing common leaves, fern-like, 

 and variously shaped leaves. Such cases differ but little from the so-called 



52 ' Gard. Chron.,' 1867, p. 235. 



53 Gartner, 'Bastarderzeugung,'s.305. 



54 Mr. D. Beaton, in ' Cottage Gar- 

 dener,' 1860, p. 250. 



55 ' Gard. Chron.,' 1850, p. 536. 



56 Braun, 'Ray Soc. Bot. Mem.,' 

 1853, p. 315; Hopkirk's 'Flora Ano- 

 mala,' p. 164 ; Lecoq, ' Geograph. Bot. 



de l'Europe,' torn, iii., 1854, p. 405 ; and 

 < De la Fe'condation,' 1862, p. 303. 



5 ? ' Des Varie'tes,' 1865, p. 5. 



™ W. Mason, in ' Gard. Chron.,' 1843, 

 p. 878. 



59 Alex. Braun, ' Ray Soc. Bot. Mem., 

 1853, p. 315 ; ' Gard. Chron.,' 1841, p. 

 329. 



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