ORIGIN  OF  VARIETIES  IN  PLANTS. 
35 
ning,  so  common  now-a-days.  Our  ancient  pears,  which  a  cen- 
tury or  two  ago  were  so  justly  esteemed,  are  now  exactly  the 
same  as  they  ever  were  ;  they  ripen  at  the  same  time  and  keep 
good  just  as  long.  .  .  The  pretended  degeneracy  of  ancient  races 
is  really  nothing  more  than  one  of  the  clever  devices  of  the 
present  day." 
"  On  the  other  hand,  can  it  be  true,  as  Van  Mons  and  many 
pomologists  believe,  that  the  pips  of  a  good  fruit  produce  wild 
austere  fruit,  and  thence  return  to  what  they  suppose  to  be  the 
specific  type  ?    I  do  not  hesitate  to  declare  the  contrary,  and  I 
defy  any  one  to  bring  forward  an  example  of  a  good  fruit, 
whose  flowers  were  fertilized  by  their  own  pollen,  or  by  that  of 
any  of  their  own  race,  whose  seed  has  produced  wild  fruit. 
.  .  .  Jt  may  be  considered  certain,  that  all  superior  varieties  of 
the  Pear-tree,  and  I  may  say  of  all  fruit-trees,  if  they  are  fer- 
tilized by  themselves,  produce  good  fruit.    They  may  vary,  and 
will  probably  do  so,  sometimes  in  one  peculiarity  and  sometimes 
in  another,  according  to  the  variety ;  but  none  will  become 
wild,  any  more  than  our  seedling  Cantaloupe  melon  return  to 
form  and  flavor  of  the  little  wild  melons  of  India,  or  than  our 
Oabbages  and  Cauliflowers  return  to  some  one  of  the  wild  races 
that  grow  on  the  sea-shore.    Whatever  the  advocates  of  im- 
mutability may  say,  the  species  of  plants  are  really  subject  to 
great  variation  ;  and  there  is  much  truth  in  the  theory  which 
refers  to  the  same  specific  type,  races  and  varieties  which, 
though  very  different  in  appearance,  have  the  same  morpholog- 
ical organization,  and  which,  like  the  members  of  the  same  fam- 
ily, are  capable  of  crossing  with  one  another  .  .  .  Take  any 
one  of  our  races  of  Pear-trees,  and  transport  it  to  all  the  re- 
gions of  the  globe  ;  wherever  it  can  exist,  it  will  struggle  to 
adapt  itself  to  the  situation,  and  after  a  few  generations  it  will 
have  given  birth  to  new  and  numberless  varieties.    This  fact, 
which  takes  place  under  our  own  eyes,  in  the  case  of  every 
cultivated  plant  that  is  much  distributed  over  the  world,  gives 
the  key  to  those  polymorphous  species  which  perplex  botanical 
classifiers,  and  which  have  only  become  what  they  are  by  na- 
ture herself  having  spread  them  over  an  immense  expanse  of 
country." 
We  remark,  1,  that  a  view  which  we  have  more  than  once  re- 
