THE MOTHER-PLANT--ON THE EFFECTS IN FEMALE ANIMALS OF
A FIRST IMPREGNATION ON THE SUBSEQUENT OFFSPRING--CONCLUSION AND
SUMMARY.

This chapter will be chiefly devoted to a subject in many respects
important, namely, bud-variation. By this term I include all those sudden
changes in structure or appearance which occasionally occur in full-grown
plants in their flower-buds or leaf-buds. Gardeners call such changes
"Sports;" but this, as previously remarked, is an ill-defined expression,
as it has often been applied to strongly marked variations in seedling
plants. The difference between seminal and bud reproduction is not so great
as it at first appears; for each bud is in one sense a new and distinct
individual; but such individuals are produced through the formation of
various kinds of buds without the aid of any special apparatus, whilst
fertile seeds are produced by the concourse of the two sexual elements. The
modifications which arise through bud-variation can generally be propagated
to any extent by grafting, budding, cuttings, bulbs, &c., and occasionally
even by seed. Some few of our most beautiful and useful productions have
arisen by bud-variation.

Bud-variations have as yet been observed only in the vegetable {374}
kingdom; but it is probable that if compound animals, such as corals, &c.,
had been subjected to a long course of domestication, they would have
varied by buds; for they resemble plants in many respects. Thus any new or
peculiar character presented by a compound animal is propagated by budding,
as occurs with differently coloured Hydras, and as Mr. Gosse has shown to
be the case with a singular variety of a true coral. Varieties of the Hydra
have also been grafted on other varieties, and have retained their
character.

I will in the first place give all the cases of bud-variations which I have
been able to collect, and afterwards show their importance. These cases
prove that those authors who, like Pallas, attribute all variability to the
crossing either of distinct races, or of individuals belonging to the same
race but somewhat different from each other, are in error; as are those
authors who attribute all variability to the mere act of sexual union. Nor
can we account in all cases for the appearance through bud-variation of new
characters by the principle of reversion to long-lost characters. He who
wishes to judge how far the conditions of life directly cause each
particular variation o