



18* 



INHERITANCE. 



Chap. XII. 



same 



peculiarity, the probability is strong that it will be 



transmitted to at least some of their offspring. We have 



that variegation is 



from 



mitted much mor 



a 



branch 



hich had become 



feebly 



seed 



* 



variation, than from plants which were 



& 



ated through bud 



ated 



ling 



as seed 



With most plants the power of transmission notoriously 



depends on some 



morin 



aised from 



capacity in the individual 



Vil 



a peculiarly coloured balsam some seed 

 lings, which all resembled their parent ; but of these seedling! 

 some failed to transmit the new character, whilst others trans 

 mitted it to all their descendants during several successive gene 

 rations. So again with a variety of the rose, two plants alone 

 out of six were found by Vilmorin to be capable of transmittii 

 the desired character. 



The weeping or pendulous growth of trees is strongly inherited in some 

 cases, and, without any assignable reason, feebly in other cases. I have 



i 



selected this character as an instance of capricious inheritance, because it 

 is certainly not proper to the parent-species, and because, both sexes 

 being borne on the same tree, both tend to transmit the same character. 

 Even supposing that there may have been in some instances crossing with 

 adjoining trees of the same species, it is not probable that all the seed- 

 lings would have been thus affected. At Moccas Court there is a famous 

 weeping oak ; many of its branches " are 30 feet long, and no thicker in 

 any part of this length than a common rope :" this tree transmits its weep- 

 ing character, in a greater or less degree, to all its seedlings ; some of the 

 young oaks being so flexible that they have to be supported by props; 

 others not showing the weeping tendency till about twenty years old. 44 

 Mr. Kivers fertilized, as he informs me, the flowers of a new Belgian 

 weeping thorn ( Crataegus oxyacantha) with pollen from a crimson not- weeping 

 variety, and three young trees, " now six or seven years old, show a decided 

 tendency to be pendulous, but as yet are not so much so as the mother- 

 plant/' According to Mr. MacNab, 45 seedlings from a magnificent weeping 

 birch (Betula alba), in the Botanic Garden at Edinburgh, grew for the first 

 ten or fifteen years upright, but then all became weepers like their parent. 

 A peach with pendulous branches, like those of the weeping willow, has 

 been found capable of propagation by seed. 46 Lastly, a weeping and almost 

 prostrate yew ( Taxus baccata) was found in a hedge in Shropshire ; it was 

 a male, but one branch bore female flowers, and produced berries ; these, 



43 Verlot, 'La Production des Varietes/ 



1865, p. 32. 



44 Loudon's 'Gard. Mag./ vol. xii., 



1836, p. 368. 



yi f. J 



45 Verlot, ' La Product, des Varietes, 



1865, p. 94. 

 « Bronn's ' Geschiclite der Natur, 



b. ii. s. 121. 



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