350 On the Improvement of the Wild Carroty 



not been found by botanists, and which we possess only in the do- 

 mestic or cultivated state. It is very true that these plants are 

 still in the course of improvement by us, and that we daily obtain 

 new varieties of them ; but amongst such variations of species 

 already changed, and the first amelioration of a wild plant, a fun- 

 damental difference exists of which it is important to give some 

 account. 



When by any means, a species has been made to deviate from 

 its primitive condition, the somewhat artificial race or races, which 

 have resulted from it, are essentially variable. This is what we see 

 in our garden kinds, which have a constant tendency to sport, 

 generally in order to degenerate, (in our opinion,) that is to say, to 

 return to their first stock; often also by contrary and different 

 influences, (for this phenomenon is very complex in its causes as in 

 its effects,) to wander still further from it, or to experience new 

 changes. The natural species, on the contrary, is essentially fixed 

 and stable ; with rare exceptions, it varies only within the limits 

 assigned to the different individuals ; differences which disappear 

 and are renewed with those individuals, without leaving any lasting 

 traces, and without giving birth to new races. 



This explains how we obtain, so easily, varieties of our kitchen- 

 garden plants already altered and ameliorated ; whilst, if we bring 

 into culture a species still in its natural state, we do not see it sen- 

 sibly improve. These improvements however are possible ; they 

 have formerly been effected by man in many species, but neither the 

 tradition of the means, nor the practice itself, has been handed 

 down to us. 



It might be supposed, and this opinion has sometimes been ex- 

 pressed to me by sensible men, that in order to create improved ali- 

 mentary varieties, nothing more has been requisite than abundant 

 nourishment and great care in garden culture ; but an attentive ex- 

 amination does not allow me to adopt this opinion except in a very 

 restricted sense. Certainly care is among the number of indispen- 



