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ven a single white eye, but a whole white tuber, which has since been propagated and keeps true.[883] Several cases have been recorded of large portions of whole rows of potatoes slightly changing their character.[884] Dahlias propagated by tubers under the hot climate of St. Domingo vary much; Sir R. Schomburgk gives the case of the "Butterfly variety," which the second year produced on the same plant "double and single flowers; here white petals edged with maroon; there of a uniform deep maroon."[885] Mr. Bree also mentions a plant "which bore two different kinds of self-coloured flowers, as well as a third kind which partook of both colours beautifully intermixed."[886] Another case is described of a dahlia with purple flowers which bore a white flower streaked with purple.[887] Considering how long and extensively many Bulbous plants have been cultivated, and how numerous are the varieties produced from seed, these plants have not varied so much by offsets,--that is, by the production of new bulbs,--as might have been expected. With the Hyacinth a case has been recorded of a blue variety which for three successive years gave offsets which produced white flowers with a red centre.[888] Another hyacinth has been described[889] as bearing on the same truss a perfectly pink and a perfectly blue flower. Mr. John Scott informs me that in 1862 _Imatophyllum miniatum_, in the Botanic Gardens of Edinburgh, threw up a sucker which differed from the normal form, in the leaves being two-ranked instead of four-ranked. The leaves were also smaller, with the upper surface raised instead of being channelled. In the propagation of _Tulips_, seedlings are raised, called _selfs_ or _breeders_, which "consist of one plain colour on a white or yellow bottom. These, being cultivated on a dry and rather poor soil, become broken or variegated and produce new varieties. The time that elapses before they break varies from one to twenty years or more, and sometimes this change never takes place."[890] The various broken or variegated colours which give value to all tulips are due to bud-variation; for although the {386} Bybloemens and some other kinds have been raised from several distinct breeders, yet all the Baguets are said to have come from a single breeder or seedling. This bud-variation,
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