ved. In Kentucky, asses have been imported (for breeding
mules) from Spain, Malta, and France; these "seldom averaged more than
fourteen hands high; but the Kentuckians, by great care, have raised them
up to fifteen hands, and sometimes even to sixteen. The prices paid for
these splendid animals, for such they really are, will prove how much they
are in request. One male, of great celebrity, was sold for upwards of one
thousand pounds sterling." These choice asses are sent to cattle-shows, one
day being given to their exhibition.[581]

Analogous facts have been observed with plants: the nutmeg-tree in the
Malay archipelago is highly variable, but there has been no selection, and
there are no distinct races.[582] The common mignonette (_Reseda odorata_),
from bearing inconspicuous flowers, valued solely for their fragrance,
"remains in the same unimproved condition as when first introduced."[583]
Our common forest-trees are very variable, as may be seen in every
extensive nursery-ground; but as they are not valued like fruit-trees, and
as they seed late in life, no selection has been applied to them;
consequently, as Mr. Patrick Matthews remarks,[584] they have not yielded
distinct races, leafing at different periods, growing to different sizes,
and producing timber fit for different purposes. We have gained only some
fanciful and semi-monstrous varieties, which no doubt appeared suddenly as
we now see them.

Some botanists have argued that plants cannot have so strong a tendency to
vary as is generally supposed, because many species long grown in botanic
gardens, or unintentionally cultivated year after year mingled with our
corn crops, have not produced distinct races; but this is accounted for by
slight variations not having been selected and propagated. Let a plant
which is now grown in a botanic garden, or any common weed, be cultivated
on a large scale, and let a sharp-sighted gardener look out for each slight
variety and sow the seed, and then, if distinct races are not produced, the
argument will be valid.

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The importance of selection is likewise shown by considering special
characters. For instance, with most breeds of fowls the form of the comb
and the colour of the plumage have been attended to, and are eminently
characteristic of each race; but in Dorkings, fashion has never demanded
uniformity of comb or colour; and the utmost diversity in these respects
prevails. Rose-combs, double-combs, cup-comb