610 
Cultivated Plante of the Future. 
in obtaining important additions to our seedless or nearly seedless 
plants. Whether the ultimate profit would be large enough to pay 
for the time and labour involved is a question which we need not 
enter into ; there appears no reasonable doubt that such efforts would 
be successful. There is no reason in the nature of things why we 
should not have strawberries without the so-called seeds ; black- 
berries and raspberries with only delicious pulp ; and large grapes 
as free from seeds as the small ones which we call “ currants,” but 
which are really grapes from Corinth. 
These, and the coreless apples and pears of the future, the stone- 
less cherries and plums, like the common fruits before mentioned, 
must be propagated by bud-division, and be open to the tendency to 
diminished strength said to be the consequence of continued bud- 
propagation. But this bridge need not be crossed until we come to 
it. Bananas have been perpetuated in this way for many centuries, 
and pineapples since the discovery of America, so that the borrowed 
trouble alluded to is not threatening. 
It is absolutely necessary to I’ecollect that, in most cases, 
variations are slight. Of this, many illustrations have been adduced, 
all of which show the necessity of extreme patience and caution. The 
student curious in such matters can have hardly any task more in- 
structive than the detection of the variations in such common plants 
as the blueberry, the wild cherry, or the like. It is an excellent pre- 
paration for a practical study of the variations in our wild fruits 
suitable for selection. 
It was held by the late Dr. Gray that the variations in nature 
by which species have been evolved were led along useful lines — a 
view which Darwin regretted he could not entertain. However 
this may be, all acknowledge that, by the hand of the cultivator, 
variations can be led along useful lines ; and, furthermore, the hand 
which selects must uphold them in their unequal strife. In other 
words, it is one thing to select a variety, and another to assist it in 
maintaining its hold upon existence. Without the constant help of 
the cultivator who selects the usual variety, there comes a reversion 
to the ordinary specific type which is fitted to cope with its sur- 
roundings. 
IV. Vegetable Fibres. 
The vegetable fibres known to commerce are either plant hairs, 
of which we may take cotton as the type, or filaments of bast-tissue, 
represented by Max. No new plant hairs have been suggested which 
can compete in any way for spinning with those yielded by the 
species of Gossypium, or cotton, but experiments more or less sys- 
tematic and thorough are being carried on with regard to the im- 
provement of the varieties of the species. Plant hairs for the 
stuffing of cushions and pillows need not be referred to in connection 
with this subject. 
Countless sorts of plants have been suggested as sources of 
good bast-fibres for spinning and for cordage, and many of these 
make capital substitutes for those already in the factories. But the 
