264 
HAROLD’S DISCUSSIONS. 
wild state the tomato was a small two-celled berry, so 
unlike its present form that should any one find it 
to-day it would scarcely remind him of a tomato. 
E^ature, assisted by soil, climate, cultivation, and 
selection, has produced the wonderful modern tomato. 
There are hundreds of varieties, differing not only in 
color and size, but very much in form, both externally 
and internally. The plant itself has been transformed 
into a gre^t number of varieties, different in the char¬ 
acter of the stem, the manner of branching, and in 
the form of the leaves and leafiets. Some of the va¬ 
rieties are so unlike others that if they were found in 
nature no one would hesitate to call them different 
species. These varieties, if we may not be permitted 
to call them species, are the result of careful selection 
by the gardener. 
In their original wild state the roots of beets, 
radishes, and carrots were colorless, but by cultivation 
and selection man has produced the various colors 
now so highly prized in the market. Suppose we 
take the seed of a wild beet and plant it in good soil. 
This would result in some variation at least; a num¬ 
ber of the roots would have a suggestion of red in 
spots. By using the seed of these for planting some 
of the roots would contain still more color. Let this 
process be repeated for a sufiicient number of genera¬ 
tions and a beet of definite color could be produced. 
If the selection be continued, a light-red or a blood- 
red variety would be the result. It would, however, 
happen that in some, if not all, of the plantings there 
would be roots with little color. In other words. 
