246 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
more than any two sheep in a flock, or any two peas in a pod, 
are precisely alike ; still, for general purposes, we may say that 
all the buds and all the shoots from those buds are alike. To 
such an extent is this true that it is the general practice 
amongst gardeners to propagate, by means of cuttings or grafts, 
any particular variety they may be desirous of perpetuating, 
because reproduction by seed does not offer the same certainty 
of reproducing the particular quality required as propagation 
by buds does. But it now and then happens that one or more 
buds on a particular plant, and one or more shoots, are not like 
the rest, and then we have what in garden phraseology is 
termed a “ sport,” but which is more correctly styled a bud- 
variation. 
We propose to cite sundry selected illustrations of this 
phenomenon, with a view to show how wide the range of varia- 
tion may be, and in what different ways it may manifest itself. 
The simplest case, because it involves no appreciable change of 
form, is that in which a single bud, or a collection of buds 
in one particular part of a plant, is more precocious in its 
development than the others on the same tree. Instances 
of this kind are not uncommon. The buds on one particular 
branch may be each year considerably in advance in point of 
development of their neighbours, and this without there being 
any appreciable reason, such as more perfect protection or 
shelter on one side than on another. Thus we have seen two 
shoots of red currants taken from the same branch : on the one 
spray the flowers were ten days earlier in point of expansion, 
the new shoots being as much as 6 in. in length, while on the 
other spray the buds were only just expanding. With reference 
to this point, it may be remarked that the same phenomenon 
occurs in the case of seedling varieties. There are certain 
horse-chestnuts — some of which have almost historical fame, 
such as the Marronnier du Vingt-Mars in the Tuileries Gardens 
— which are year by year several days in advance of their kind 
in their development. But the circumstance of the whole 
organism exhibiting this precocity is not so striking as is the 
early development of one particular branch or set of branches, 
as compared with the rest. 
In point of size, whether increased or diminished, there is 
often great difference in the different branches of the same tree. 
For some reason or other — what, no one knows — the shoots 
on a particular branch, instead of lengthening as the rest do, 
remain stunted and dwarfed. Several curious garden varieties 
of firs, such as the Clanbrasilian fir, have originated in this way, 
and are reproduced or propagated by cuttings or grafts at the 
will of the gardener. The birch affords frequently illustrations 
of this phenomenon, in the form of those tufted agglomerations 
