The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1884-05-21

But when we study vegetable life, and
examine closely all its changes and
mysterious reproductions, we are persua-
ded that nature, always regular IN her
operations, always grand in her results,
has abandoned nothing to chance, and
that she has determined from the mo-
ment of creation all the details of exist
ence, and cast inhexibly the mold in
which all beings must be modelled.
This great truth, which cannot be hid
den from the view of the careful obser-
yer, nevertheless seems to be with diff
Guilty reconciied with number of phe-
| nomena which are every day presented
| to view.
On the other hand, we are treasured
in these principles by the example OF all
primitive species of plants, which are
always met with on the earth in the same
form under which they have existed Tor
many centuries; we are convinced OF
this fact by the bringing together and
comparison of those remains OF plants
found in excavations, and by the models
which have been transmitted to us by
painting, sculpture, or the descriptions
of the ancients.
On the other hand, we know not to
what should be attributed all those new
species or varieties, of which, it seems,
our ancestors had no idea, and still more
those sub-varieties and those monsters
which are daily developed under our
own ewes, either by the seed, or some
chance, of which we as yet know not the
principle.
1t is already half century since we
succeeded in establishing order in the
multitude of these new races, which
have been divided into two classes. The
first is the hybrids; the second the rdrl-
cites.
Linneus has wrung from nature the
secret of the formation of the first; 1t
remains to seek the principles according
to which the second are produced.
will call the hybrids by the name Of
the species entering into their formation,
because it seems to me that every indi
| vidual which deviates partially from the
characteristics of it's type, and particl
the s9s T.s i1 1f ap9 q5 s, speG1es S
J plants whose secondary characteristic
are modified by any cause whateve
without departing from the species q 4
" Without this. distinction i 4Rould bt
embarrassed in determining, for exam
pie, to what species, in quality or varie.
ty, the hermaphrodite orange belongs
CITRUS dardRtium indicunl HmO-citr0tum
folio ct .tructu mirto), which partakes OF
the lemon, the orange, and the citron,
and it would necessarily follow that this
pretended variety would be found ranked
in the same line as the blood-red orange
tree( Citrus durdatium sinense hier0chunc-
tjcum .fructu sdnguiaeO) which has only
the characteristics of the single orange
of which it is a variety. 8N .#t
| Will not stop to trace the theory of
the hybrids. This system is already so
well known that l can add nothing to its
development I shall occupy myself in
seeking the cause of the formation of
varieties, and will present my theory as
the result of many experiments and
much observation, which l invite bota-
nists to repeat III order better to deter
mine their phenomena and their conse-
quences.
In all times it has been observed with
establishment that nature appears more
inclined to give us wild than fine varie-
| ties. 1t is rare that choice fruit is re-
| produced from the seed and we see, for
example, that the seed of the most deli
cate butter-pear regularly gives us only
wild fruit, whose acrid fruit, without
juice, in no way resembles the species
from which it is descended.
| LNCAA " nO4A OlldlACC .bOlilc
fine variety, it isneyertheless not always
equal to the fruit that produced it, and as
/ this chance seldom occurs, and as it is
| very difficult to establish such recurrence
because it is not foreseen, and because it
has fallen but little under the eyes of
enlightened cultivators, it has generally
been believed that these varieties are
! due only to the graft, to cultiyating, or
the climate. Sometimes, indeed, botan-
list have allowed themselves to be inn
posed upon by superficial and deceitful
| gardeners, who, seeing themselves the
possessors of several of these new spe-
eies without knowing their origin, have
imagined and believed that some mar
velous operation has taken place, and
supposed them due to gratis, which ex-
listed not in nature, and which would not
! give such a result if they did exist.
| Hence the different agricultural systems
| which have reigned for several centuries,
and of which part reign still to-day,
even among enlightened agriculturists.
| There are, for instance, few cultivators
who are not convinced that the sour or
ange is the type of the species, and that
all seed from an orange tree, even tho
it be a sweet one, gives only sour orange
trees. This pretended phenomenon,
| which has been believed on the faith of
the cultivators, without ever being de-
| termined by exact experiments, has been