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Show 374 BUD-VAlUATION. CllAP. XT. kingdom ; but it is pro1able that if compound animals, s.uch. as corals, &c., had been subjected to a long course of domestteat1o~, they would have varied by buds; for they resemble plants m 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 show.n ~o be the case with a singular variety of a true coral. Vanetws of tho Hydra have also been grafted on other varieties, and have retained their character. . . • I will in tho first place give all the cases of bud-vanatwns which I have been able to collect, and afterwards show their importance. These cases prove that those aut~1ors ,~ho, like Pallas, attribute all variability to the crossmg either of distinct races, or of individuals belonging to the same race but somewhat different from each other, are in enor; as are those authors who attribute all varia bi1ity to tho mere act of sexual union. Nor can we account in all cases for tho appearance through bud-variation of now 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 ought to reflect well on tho cases immediately to be given. I will commence with bud-variations, as exhibited in the fruit, and then pass on to flowers, and finally to leaves. P each (Amygdalus P ersica).-In tho last chapter I gave two cases of a peach-almond and double-flowered almond which suddenly produced fruit closely resembling true peaches. I have also recorded many cases of peach-trees producing buds, which, when developed into branches, have yielded nectarines. W o have seen that no less than six named and several unnamed varieties of tho peach have thus produced several varieties of nectarine. I havo shown that it is highly improbable that all thcflo peach-trees, some of wl1ich arc old varieties, and have been propagated hy the million, arc hybrids fTom tho pcrtch and nectarine, and that it is opposed to all analogy to attribute the occa ional production of nectarines on peach-trees to the direct rtetion of pollen from some neighbouring ncctarinc-irco. Several of the caflCS arc highfy remarkable, bocauflc, firstly, the fruit thus produced has sometimes been :in part a nectarine and ill part a peach; secondly, because nectarines thus suddenly produced have reproduced themselves by seed; and thirdly, because nectarines arc produced from peach-trees from seed as well as from buck The seed of the nectarine, on tho other hand, occa:ionally produces pcn,chcs; and we have seen in one instance that a ncctrtrinc-trcc yielded p aches by budvariation. As tho peach is certainly tho oldest or primary variety, tho CHAT'. XT. FRUIT. 375 production of peaches from nectarines,. either by. seeds or buds, may perhaps be considered as a case of revorswn. Ccrtam trees have also been described as indifferently bearing peaches or nectarines, and this may bo considered as bud-variation carried to an extreme degree. 'rho ,grosse mignonne peach at Montreuil produced "from a sporting branch" the .grosse mignonne tardive, "a most excellent variety," which ripens its fruit a fortnight later than the parent tree, and ir; equally good.1 This same peach has likewise produced by bud-variation the ear·ly g1·osse mignonne. IIunt's large taw11y nectarine "originated from Hunt's small tawny nectarine, but not tlll'ough seminal reproduction" 2 Plums.-Mr. Knight states that a tree of the yellow magnum bonum plum, forty years old, which had always borne ordinary fruit, produced a branch which yielded red magnum bonums.3 Mr. Hivcrs, of Sawbridgoworth, informs me (Jan. 18G3) that a single tree out of 400 or 500 trees of the Early Prolific plum, which is a purple kind, descended from an old French variety bearing purple fruit, produced w!1en about ten years old bright yellow plums; those differed in no respect except coloUI' from those on tho other trees, but wore unlike any other known kind of yellow phun.4 Ohe1·ry (Prunus cerasus).-Mr. Knight has recorded (idem) the case of a branch of a May-Duke chcny, which, though certainly never grafted, always pToduccd fTuit, ripening latcT, and more oblong, than the fruit on the other branches. .Another accotmt has been given of two May-Duke cherry-trees in Scotland, with branches bearing oblong, and veTy fino fruit, which invariably ripened, as in Knight's case, a fortnight later than tho other chcrr:ics.5 (h·apes ( Vitis vinifem).-Tho black or purple Frontignan in one caso produced during two successive years (antl no doubt permanently) spm·s which bore white Frontignan grapes. In another case, on the same footstalk, tho lower berries "were wcll-colotucd black Frontignans; those next tho stalk were white, with tho exception of one black and one streaked berry;" and altogether thoro were fifteen black and twelve white berries on tho same stalk. In another kind of grape black and amber-coloured berries were produccJ. in tho srtmo clustcr.6 Count Odart describes a variety which often bears on the same stalk small round and large oblong b rrios; though tho shape of tho berry is generally a fixed charactcr.7 IJm·c is another striking case given on the excellent authority of M. Carriere: 8 "a black Hamhurgh grape (Jirankcnthal) was cut down, and produced three suckers; one of these was layered, and after a time produced much smaller berries, which always ripened at least a fortnight 1 • Om·dcnor's Chron.,' 1854, p. 821. 2 'Lindley's Guide to Orchard,' as q uotcd in ' Gnrd. Chronicle,' 1852, p. 821. For tho Ea1·ly mignonne peach, see • Gardener's Chron.,' 18G4, p. 1251. a • Transact. liOl't. Soc.,' vol. ii. p. 160. 4 See also 'Gardener's Chron.,' 18U3, p. 27. 5 • Garcl. Chron.,' 1852, p. 821. 6 'Gardener 's Chron.,' 1852, p. 62!); 1856, p. 648; 18G4, p. 086. Other cases arc given by Braun,' Rcjuvcncsccncc,' in ' Ha.y Soc. Bot. 1\icm.,' 1853, p. 314. 7 'Ampclographie,' &c., 1849, p. 71. & • Gardener's Cluouiclc,' 1866,p. 970. |