THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



541 



type, which presents desirable qualities in 

 regard to structure or constitution, we en- 

 deavour to preserve it, and cultivation is, 

 to a great extent, devoted to the preserva- 

 tion, the continuance and improvement of 

 races established in this way. It is be- 

 cause the constitution of these variations 

 of the original form is favourable that we 

 endeavour to preserve them ; and when 

 we have firmly fixed these peculiarities in 

 a series of forms, generation after genera- 

 tion, we have produced a "race." The 

 varieties on which these races are found- 

 ed may perhaps be attributable, in the first 

 instance, to physical conditions; these 

 conditions may have produced the origi- 

 nal modification from which the race takes 

 its character. By this I would not admit, 

 for a moment, that the external conditions 

 may transform one species, properly so 

 called, into another ; but evexy species has 

 a certain range of differences, and exter- 

 nal conditions may call out one or other 

 of these modifications under particular 

 circumstances. I think it probable that 

 most variations of particular species may 

 have been produced by external conditions 

 in the first instance; it is true also that 

 the external conditions have great influ- 

 ence in preserving these characters in 

 races ; but we find that in old-established 

 races the character is preserved with a 

 certain obstinacy in spite of external con- 

 ditions, and that the running back or re- 

 verting of such races is slow. The races 

 which are cultivated chiefly in this coun- 

 try — races of Wheat, plants belonging to 

 the Cabbage tribe, Turnips, Cauliflower, 

 and so on — are most of them very old, 

 and we have little information as regards 

 their origin. Gardeners prosecute this 

 part of cultivation — the formation of races 

 — very actively; and with florists espe- 

 cially the production and establishment of 

 races is one of the most important depart- 

 ments of their art, being as important to 

 them as the importation and introduction 

 of new species. They obtain these diffe- 

 rent races by sowing large quantities of 

 seed, selecting the specimens which come 

 up of the form which they require, saving 

 these alone, and repeating the process 

 generation after generation, getting rid of 

 all the forms which are most like the orig- 

 inal parent. It has been observed by cul- 

 tivators that there are certain peculiarities 

 in the product of these successive sowings, 



which can scarcely be called unexpected, 

 because we see the same thing illustrated 

 in the races of animals and even in the 

 human race. Two general rules are de- 

 rived by gardeners from the observation 

 of the phenomena presented in this pro- 

 duction of races by successive sowings. — 

 The first is that like produces like. They 

 save the seed only of the variation which 

 they wish to preserve, and the probability 

 is that it will produce like. This, how- 

 ever, is by no means certain, as every one 

 knows. The seed of any variety proiiuces 

 a great number of varieties, of which only 

 a part are like the immediate parent. It 

 is found that there is a tendency for seve- 

 ral generations to run back to some of the 

 former generations, in contradistinction to 

 the rule that like produces like, and this 

 is called by physiologists atavism, or a 

 "taking after" their ancestors. M. Vil- 

 morin, a distinguished Belgian florist, 

 thinks that the best way of breaking this 

 tendency to run back to the ancestral type 

 — to take after their grandfathers or great 

 grandfathers, instead of their fathers-'-is 

 to select for a number of generations those 

 forms which are least like the original pa- 

 rent ; to get the forms as far as possible 

 away from the original type, in the first 

 instance, before proceeding to select the 

 absolute form which is required. After a 

 certain number of generations, however, 

 of course, this atavism will begin to act 

 on the same side as the tendency of like 

 to produce like. If we get a number of 

 of the race resembling one 



generations 



another generation after generation, of 

 course the tendency to go back to the an- 

 cestors will not tend to alter the plant, be- 

 cause it will have a long line of similar 

 ancestors before it, where it will not find 

 the diflferences which it did in the original 

 case. From this it follows that the older 

 a race is, the more it is fixed. If a par- 

 ticular form has a long line of similar an- 

 cestors, the tendency to run back to the 

 form of its ancestors co-operates with the 

 tendency to be like its immediate parent; 

 both these work to the same end, and the 

 practical deduction is that races recently 

 established have little or no fixity ; that" 

 the older a race is, the more firmly and 

 surely its peculiarities are fixed. We have 

 illustrations of this in the human race, and 

 amongst the most striking may be men- 

 tioned the Jewish race, undoubtedly one 



