21C 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 23. 
^ the remains of cultivation from the days of Jonah, 
while tlie whole circle of the history of plants does not 
furnish a single well-authenticated instance of an im¬ 
proved variety or species, either by chance or design, 
turning back to the original variety or species from 
which it sprang. Yet the doctrine of reversion, or dis- 
improvement, is an axiom in the creed of some who 
bear the weightiest names among living physiologists. 
Our double Daisies, Chrysanthemums, and China Asters, 
our double Ranunculuses, Larkspurs, Pinks, Cloves, and 
Carnations; nay, all our cultivated Flowers, Fruits, and 
culinary Vegetables, have been improved by exactly the 
same process as that by which M. Fabre converted an 
insignificant grass, by seeds, in twelve successive gene¬ 
rations, into a true Wheat plant, the most important of 
all the cereals, and that, too, in the face of, and against, 
the mature evidence of botanical science; for, by common 
consent, the Wheat was placed in a widely difi'erent 
genus from that of ^gilo 2 )s. 11 now appears that the 
two are not, even specifically, distinct, but only in dif¬ 
ferent degrees of development. 
One of the forms of this species {.Egilops) was ob¬ 
served by M. Fabre to have a tendency to assume a 
different form and character under particular circum¬ 
stances, and this tendency, in a more or less degree, is 
seen in a vast variety of plants under cultivation, but 
the cause of it is an entire mystery. It is a quality, 
a power, given to those plants by God—we see and we 
benefit by the effects—we can discover the means of 
setting that power in motion which will produce those 
effects—but we can lift the veil no higher. We can go 
on, however, tracing those effects, and we can find that 
when improvement once appears in a form of the 
species that is barren, we have no farther means of en¬ 
couraging it to greater development, but we can retain 
it just as it is, by extension from cuttings, and we call 
it “ a sport.” On the other hand, if the new form is 
capable of bearing seeds, we know that in the first two 
or three generations of seedlings, provided they are not 
affected by foreign pollen, many of them will turn back 
to the original species, some of them will be only re¬ 
petitions of the first departure, and a small number will 
often show a still greater departure from the first species, 
or type. Here is the point, then, wliere we want skilful 
observers, like M. Fabre, to step in and follow out the 
tendency, by patient industry, to its ultimate limit, or to 
any stage of it which we think the most deserving. 
This is just what M. Fabre has effected with the 
JEgilops; and although the result of his experiments 
will surprise everyone, there is nothing new in the 
whole process, nor anything at all which is not familiar 
to every gardener. The last improvement in the flower 
of the Dahlia was obtained by the very means which 
M. Fabre used in producing the Wheat plant from a 
worthless grass. This, so far from being a disparage¬ 
ment, renders tlie discovery of universal importance, for 
it cannot fail to stimulate other's, in difi’erent countries 
and climes, to trace out, still further and fully, a law 
which the Creator of all lias stamped on the vegetable 
kingdom, for the use and gratification of His creatures. 
Here let us pause to raise a warning against two 
errors, one of which is prevalent already. In the first 
place, let it be remembered that the wild grass has not j 
been changed into wheat by a process like changing 
wheat into flour, or flour into bread. To entertain such 
an opinion would be a dangerous and fatal error. So 
far from such being the case, the end was obtained by 
merely following out that which is well understood as ^ 
a law of all organised creatures. Secondly—let it be ! 
remembered, that seedlings from a natural sport will 
revert to the first parent before the nature of the sport 
is indelibly fixed by successive generations, is a fact 
which has never been denied. Every grower of seedlings 
knows this; but it does not support the doctrine of the 
reversion of seedlings obtained by cross impregnation; 
the assertion of such reversion is altogether false and ! 
groundless. Lot a true cross be obtained from pai'ents 
distinct in species, and then, if their jn-ogeny produces 
seeds even to endless generations, no one of the seed- | 
lings will ever appear the exact image of either of the 
two first parents. 
The lecture on the discovery of M. Fabre, before the 
Horticultural Society, was listened to with intense in¬ 
terest, and it was delivered by the lecturer whilst holding 
up a beautiful drawing, representing an ear of the plant 
from every stage of the experiment. Beginning on the 
left-hand-side of the drawing, an ear of the original 
grass, JEgilops ovata, was represented; the next ear was 
the sport, which is called triticoides, that is, wheat-like— 
but the likeness to wheat is very faint indeed. The 
first seedling from triticoides, was the third ear in the 
drawing ; and the fourth ear was from the second gene¬ 
ration. Ears two, three, and four, looked very much 
alike, at the distance where we sat; all we could see 
was that three was somewhat longer than two, and 
four longer than three; the fifth ear shewed tlie attain¬ 
ment of a wide difference. It was said to he like a 
species which grows wild in Egypt, and round tlie 
eastern borders of the Mediterranean, and is called 
squarrosa, or rough - spiked—rough and bristly it cer 
tainly was—and so on they went, in a row, ear after 
ear, up to the true wheat-ear itself 
From the lecture we learned that il. Fabre is a 
gentleman skilful in many things; that his truthfulness 
is undoubted; and that his word would be readily ^ 
accepted by all who know him; that his experiments | 
were not carried on in a corner, but out in the open 
fields, after the manner of a large farmer; that his own 
men and his neighbours saw all he did, and helped 
him to do it; that he began in 1840, and that in the 
twelfth generation, this last summer, the “ Wheat itself 
stood revealed.”—B. J. 
COVENT GARDEN. 
If any evidence were required confirmatory of our 
opinion as to the possibility of an extensive cultivation 
of the more choice varieties of fruits for the supply of 
our markets than at present exists, it might have been 
found on Tuesday last, at the meeting of the Horticul- 
