4 
PRODUCTION OF NEW VARIETIES. 
make further departures from the original form. It is true that 
all or most of its seedlings will still retain a likeness to the 
parent, but a few will differ in some respects, and it is by seizing 
upon those which show symptoms of variation, that the improver 
of vegetable races founds his hopes. 
We have said that it is a part of the character of a species 
to produce the same from seed. This characteristic is retained 
even where the sport, (as gardeners term it) into numberless 
varieties is greatest. Thus, to return to cherries, the Kentish or 
common pie-cherry is one species, and the small black mazzard 
another, and although a great number of varieties of each of 
these species have been produced, yet there is always the like- 
ness of the species retained. From the first we may have the 
large and rich Mayduke, and from the last the sweet and lus- 
cious Black-Hearts ; but a glance will show us that the duke 
cherries retain the distinct dark foliage, and, in the fruit, some- 
thing of the same flavor, shape and color of the original spe- 
cies ; and the heart cherries the broad leaves and lofty growth 
of the mazzard. So too, the currant and gooseberry are differ- 
ent species of the same genus ; but though the English goose- 
berry growers have raised thousands of new varieties of this 
fruit, and shown them as large as hen’s eggs, and of every 
variety of form and color, yet their efforts with the gooseberry 
have not produced any thing resembling the common currant. 
Why-do not varieties produce the same from seed ? Why 
if we plant the stone of a Green Gage plum, will it not always 
produce a Green Gage ? This is often a puzzling question to 
the practical gardener, while his every day experience forces 
him to assent to the fact. 
AVe are not sure that the vegetable physiologists will under- 
take to answer this query fully. But in the mean time we can 
throw some light on the subject. 
It will be remembered that our garden varieties of fruits are 
not natural forms. They are the artificial productions of our 
culture. They have always a tendency to improve, but they 
have also another and a stronger tendency to return to a natural , 
or wild state. “There can be no doubt,” says Dr. Bindley, 
“ that if the arts of cultivation were abandoned for only a few 
years, all the annual varieties of plants in our gardens would 
disappear and be replaced by a few original wild forms.” Be- 
tween these two tendencies, therefore, the one derived from 
nature, and the other impressed by culture, it is easily seen how 
little likely is the progeny of varieties always to reappear in the 
same form . 
Again, our American farmers, who raise a number of kinds 
of Indian corn, very well know that, if they wish to keep the 
sorts distinct, they must grow them in different fields. Without 
this precaution they find on planting the seeds produced on the 
