78 
Improvement of the Plants of the Farm. 
the " science " of this subject, that is the existing knowledge 
connected with it, consists in observations made in the field, 
rather than in the discoveries of the closet. In spite of investi- 
gations in morphology, and the invention of a name — proto- 
plasm — for th^it which Professor Huxlev calls " the physical 
basis of life,' we can neither predict nor secure the behaviour of 
plants under all the varying circumstances which may affect 
them. If, however, we carefully watch their growth, and their 
external modifications under particular treatment or natural 
influences, we shall become " wise after the event," in the 
acquisition of knowledge useful to us as breeders and selectors. 
The admission of an eminent botanist strengthens my belief 
that the present narrative, addressed as it is to agriculturists, 
should consist mainly of a collection of facts, with the least 
possible discussion of the incomplete branches of scientific 
botany. Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, F.R.S., remarks,* "No 
doubt internal anatomical differences are even of greater mo- 
ment than these external characteristics, but these demand 
minute comparative study by means of the microscope, under 
various conditions, and at diflFerent seasons, and constitute a 
branch of inquiry at present hardly even entered upon."' 
There is a close analogy in the variation of plants and animals 
under domestication. No one doubts that primaeval forms of 
both have been altered greatly, and very much to the advantage 
of breeders and cultivators ; that the process is still assiduously 
carried on in both departments, and that more prolific or pro- 
ductive breeds of cattle, sheep, cereals, and forage-plants may 
yet be found. Still, it seems desirable to refer briefly to the 
history of the subject for the sake of showing, so far as may be 
possible, the extent of the improvements that have been effected 
in plants, and the methods by which they have been accom- 
plished. 
If the pre-historic samples of small grains and ears can be 
relied on, no doubt can exist that cereals have been greatly 
improved since the period of the Lake-Dwellings of Switzer- 
land.! Subsequent to the Stone period — an " immensely 
remote period," Mr. Darwin calls it — there has been a striking 
improvement in the cereals ; and the peas and beans of the 
Bronze period were as inferior to the common pulse of the 
present time as the latter are to the superior varieties for which 
we are indebted to modern breeders and selectors. 
• " Plant Life." By Maxwell T. Maatf rs, M.D., F.R.S. ' Handbook of the 
Farm' Series. Edited by J. Clialmcrs Morton. London: Bradbury, Agnew, 
and Co., 188.3. 
t 'Animals and Plants under Domestication.' By Charles Darwin, M.A., 
F.R.S. , &o. Second Edition, 1875, vol. i. p. 33C. 
