Chap. XXI. FAVOURABLE CIRCUMSTANCES. 237 



and they have been immensely improved. In Kentucky, asses 

 have been imported (for breeding mules) from Spain, Malta 

 and France ; these " seldom averaged more than fourteen hands 

 " high ; but the Kentuckians, by great care, have raised them 

 "up to fifteen hands, and sometimes even to sixteen. The prices 

 " paid for these splendid animals, for such they really are, will 

 "prove how much they are in request. One male, of great 

 " celebrity, was sold for upwards of one thousand pounds sterling.'' 

 These choice asses are sent to cattle-shows, one day being given 

 to their exhibition. 47 



Analogous facts have been observed with plants: the nutmeg- 

 tree in the Malay archipelago is highly variable, but there has 

 been no selection, and there are no distinct races. 48 The common 

 mignonette (Reseda odorata), from bearing inconspicuous flowers, 

 valued solely for their fragrance, " remains in the same unim- 

 " proved condition as when first introduced." 49 Our common 

 forest-trees are very variable, as may be seen in every extensive 

 nursery-ground; but as they are not valued like fruit-trees, 

 and as they seed late in life, no selection has been applied to 

 them ; consequently, as Mr. Patrick Matthews remarks, 50 they 

 have not yielded distinct races, leafing at different periods, 

 growing to different sizes, and producing timber fit for different 

 purposes. We have gained only some fanciful and semi- 

 monstrous varieties, which no doubt appeared suddenly as we 

 now see them. 



Some botanists have argued that plants cannot have so strong 

 a tendency to vary as is generally supposed, because many 

 species long grown in botanic gardens, or unintentionally culti- 

 vated year after year mingled with our corn crops, have not pro- 

 duced distinct races ; but this is accounted for by slight varia- 

 tions not having been selected and propagated. Let a plant 

 which is now grown in a botanic garden, or any common weed, 

 be cultivated on a large scale, and let a sharp-sighted gardener 

 look out for each slight variety and sow the seed, and then, if 

 distinct races are not produced, the argument will be valid. 



47 Capt. Marryat, quoted by Blyth Archipelago,' vol. ii., 1848, p. 645. 

 m ' Journ. Asiatic Soc. of Bengal,' vol. 49 Mr AbbeV; in « Journa i f Horti- 



xxvm. p. 229. culture,' Dec. 1, 1863, p. 430. 



1S Mr. Oxley, ' Journal of the Indian *o < On Naval Timber,' 1831, p. 107. 



