384 



BUD-VARIATION 



Chap. XI. 



variety hardly ever changes." 64 I have seen a variety of the holly, witli 

 its leaves having a central yellow patch, which had everywhere partially 

 reverted to the ordinary foliage, so that on the same small branch there 

 were many twigs of both kinds. In the pelargonium, and in some 

 other plants, variegation is generally accompanied by some degree of 

 dwarfing, as is well exemplified in the "Dandy" pelargonium. When 

 such dwarf varieties sport back by buds or suckers to the ordinary 

 foliage, the dwarfed stature sometimes still remains. 65 It is remarkable 

 that plants propagated from branches which have reverted from varie- 

 gated to plain leaves 66 do not always (or never, as one observer asserts) 

 perfectly resemble the original plain-leaved plant from which the varie- 

 gated branch arose : it seems that a plant, in passing by .bud-variation 

 from plain leaves to variegated, and back again from variegated to 

 plain, is generally jn. some degree affected so as to assume a slightly dif- 

 ferent aspect. 



Bud-variation by Suckers, Tubers, and Bulbs. — All the cases hitherto 

 given of bud-variation in fruits, flowers, leaves, and shoots, have been con- 

 fined to buds on the stems or branches, with the exception of a few cases 

 incidentally noticed of varying suckers in the rose, pelargonium, and 

 chrysanthemum. I will now give a few instances of variation in sub- 

 terranean buds, that is, by suckers, tubers, and bulbs ; not that there 

 is any essential difference between buds above and beneath the ground. 

 Mr. Salter informs me that two variegated varieties of Phlox originated as 

 suckers; but I should not have thought these worth mentioning, had 

 not Mr. Salter found, after repeated trials, that he could not propagate 

 them by " root-joints," whereas, the variegated Tussilago farfara can thns 

 be safely propagated ; 67 but this latter plant may have originated as a 

 variegated seedling, which would account for its greater fixedness of cha- 

 racter. The Barberry (Berberis vidgaris) offers an analogous case; there 

 is a well-known variety with seedless fruit, which can be propagated by 

 cuttings or layers ; but suckers always revert to the common form, which 

 produces fruit containing seeds. 63 My father repeatedly tried this experi- 

 ment, and always with the same result. 



Turning now to tubers : in the common Potato (Solanum tuberosum) a 

 single bud or eye sometimes varies and produces a new variety ; or, occa- 

 sionally, and this is a much more remarkable circumstance, all the eyes in a 

 tuber vary in the same manner and at the same time, so that the whole 

 tuber assumes a new character. For instance, a single eye in a tuber of the 



64 < Gard. Chron.,' 1844, p. 86. 



65 Ibid., 1861, p. 968. 



66 Ibid., 1861, p. 433. ' Cottage Gar- 

 dener,' 1860, p. 2. 



67 M. Lemoine (quoted in i Gard. 

 Chron.,' 1867, p. 74) has lately observed 

 that the Symphitum with variegated 

 leaves cannot be propagated by division 



of the roots. He also found that out of 

 500 plants of a Phlox with striped flowers, 

 which had been propagated by root- 

 division, only seven or eight produced 

 striped flowers. See also, on striped Pe- 

 largoniums, 'Gard.;Chron.,' 1867, p. 1000. 

 6S Anderson's ' Recreations in Agri- 

 culture,' vol. v. p. 152. 



Vol. 



