ht
variations in fruit-buds. Mr. Salter informs me that with flowers such do
occur, but, if propagated, they generally lose their new character in the
following year; yet he concurs with me that bud-variations usually at once
assume a decided and permanent character. We can hardly doubt that this is
the rule, when we reflect on such cases as that of the peach, which has
been so carefully observed and of which such trifling seminal varieties
have been propagated, yet this tree has repeatedly produced by
bud-variation nectarines, and only twice (as far as I can learn) any other
variety, namely, the Early and Late Grosse Mignonne peaches; and these
differ from the parent-tree in hardly any character except the period of
maturity. {411}
To my surprise I hear from Mr. Salter that he brings the great principle of
selection to bear on variegated plants propagated by buds, and has thus
greatly improved and fixed several varieties. He informs me that at first a
branch often produces variegated leaves on one side alone, and that the
leaves are marked only with an irregular edging or with a few lines of
white and yellow. To improve and fix such varieties, he finds it necessary
to encourage the buds at the bases of the most distinctly marked leaves,
and to propagate from them alone. By following with perseverance this plan
during three or four successive seasons, a distinct and fixed variety can
generally be secured.
Finally, the facts given in this chapter prove in how close and remarkable
a manner the germ of a fertilised seed and the small cellular mass forming
a bud resemble each other in function,--in their powers of inheritance with
occasional reversion,--and in their capacity for variation of the same
general nature, in obedience to the same laws. This resemblance, or rather
identity, is rendered far more striking if the facts can be trusted which
apparently render it probable that the cellular tissue of one species or
variety, when budded or grafted on another, may give rise to a bud having
an intermediate character. In this chapter we clearly see that variability
is not necessarily contingent on sexual generation, though much more
frequently its concomitant than on bud-reproduction. We see that
bud-variability is not solely dependent on reversion or atavism to
long-lost characters, or to those formerly acquired from a cross, but that
it is often spontaneous. But when we ask ourselves what is the cause of any
particular
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