THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 207 
VARIATIONS IN PLANT LIFE. 
By Edwin Cheel. 
(Synopsis). 
In our rambles through the bush in search of wild flow- 
ers for botanical study, we find a remarkable variation in 
the form and colour of the flowers and foliage, as well as in 
the habit of the plants, and yet there is very little difficulty 
in tracing a resemblance between certain plants, as there is 
a similarity in the general structure of the floral organ and 
fruits. It is owing to the general resemblance in the struc- 
ture of the flowers and fruits that plants are arranged into 
families, genera and species. If we take a given species, and 
examine the members of that species carefully, it will very 
probably be found that a large number of the individuals of 
what is by most botanists regarded as a certain species, dif- 
fer so very much, that several well-marked varieties, or forms, 
may be distinguished, and advantage is occasionally taken in 
such cases to establish what is known as sub-species or varie- 
ties, whereby the particular plants so separated receive sepa- 
rate names to distinguish them from the normal or type 
species. It is chiefly through variations of this kind that we 
have so many different torms and colours among our garden 
plants, such as we see in roses, carnations, cabbages, beans, 
peas, and numerous kinds of cereals, all of which have at some 
remote period been found in a wild state, and through intense 
cultivation for very many years, and by the interpollination of 
the various forms with one another, we are scarcely able at 
times to identify them as belonging to any known species de- 
scribed in botanical literature. 
It is frequently found that in many of the plants culti- 
vated, that the characters are so unstable, that the colour of 
the flowers, and the form of the leaves, are entirely different 
from that of the parent plant; this applies more especially to 
roses, apples, peaches, etc., so that in such cases it is very 
difficult to form a classification so as to kéep a record of the 
forms. In other cases, as for example in wheat, barley, and 
beans, the characters become fixed, that is to say, the char- 
acter of the seedlings and ultimate crop, are exactly the same 
as the parent forms; these are what are termed “‘races’’ and 
experienced nurserymen are ever on the alert for improved 
forms with fixed characters, so as to swell their catalogue with 
new ‘‘trade-names,’’? such as we see in the large series of 
French Beans which I exhibit to-night, all of which belong 
to the species Phaseolus vulgaris, but differ from one another 
in the colour of the seed-coat, and perhaps in habit of growth, 
or the quality or quantity produced by the respective forms. 
In some cases, these “‘trade-forms’’ may be propagated 
for many years, and their distinctive sharacter remain con- 
sistent, but if they are in any way neglected, and grown with- 
