The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication — Volume 1

In the catalogue of apples published in 1842 by the Horticultural Society, 897 varieties are enumerated; but the differences between most of them are of comparatively little interest, as they are not strictly inherited. No one can raise, for instance, from the seed of the Ribston Pippin, a tree of the same kind; and it is said that the "Sister Ribston Pippin" was a white semi-transparent, sour-fleshed apple, or rather large crab. (10/96. R. Thompson, in 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1850 page 788.) Yet it was a mistake to suppose that with most varieties the characters are not to a certain extent inherited. In two lots of seedlings raised from two well-marked kinds, many worthless crab-like seedlings will appear, but it is now known that the two lots not only usually differ from each other, but resemble to a certain extent their parents. We see this indeed in the several sub-groups of Russetts, Sweetings, Codlins, Pearmains, Reinettes, etc. (10/97. Sageret 'Pomologie Physiologique' 1830 page 263. Downing 'Fruit Trees' pages 130, 134, 139, etc. Loudon's 'Gardener's Mag.' volume 8 p. 317. Alexis Jordan 'De l'Origine des diverses Varietes' in 'Mem. de l'Acad. Imp. de Lyon' tome 2 1852 pages 95, 114. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1850 pages 774, 788.), which are all believed, and many are known, to be descended from other varieties bearing the same names.

PEARS (Pyrus communis).

I need say little on this fruit, which varies much in the wild state, and to an extraordinary degree when cultivated, in its fruit, flowers, and foliage. One of the most celebrated botanists in Europe, M. Decaisne, has carefully studied the many varieties (10/98. 'Comptes Rendus' July 6, 1863.); although he formerly believed that they were derived from more than one species, he now thinks that all belong to one. He has arrived at this conclusion from finding in the several varieties a perfect gradation between the most extreme characters; so perfect is this gradation that he maintains it to be impossible to classify the varieties by any natural method. M. Decaisne raised many seedlings from four distinct kinds, and has carefully recorded the variations in each. Notwithstanding this extreme degree of variability, it is now positively known that many kinds reproduce by seed the leading characters of their race. (10/99. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1856 page 804; 1857 page 820; 1862 page 1195.)

STRAWBERRIES (Fragaria).

This fruit is remarkable on account of the number of species which have been cultivated, and from their rapid improvement within the last fifty or sixty years. Let any one compare the fruit of one of the largest varieties exhibited at our Shows with that of the wild wood strawberry, or, which will be a fairer comparison, with the somewhat larger fruit of the wild American Virginian Strawberry, and he will see what prodigies horticulture has effected. (10/100. Most of the largest cultivated strawberries are the descendants of F. grandiflora or chiloensis, and I have seen no account of these forms in their wild state. Methuen's Scarlet (Downing 'Fruits' page 527) has "immense fruit of the largest size," and belongs to the section descended from F. virginiana; and the fruit of this species, as I hear from Prof. A. Gray, is only a little larger than that of F. vesca, or our common wood-strawberry.) The number of varieties has likewise increased in a surprisingly rapid manner. Only three kinds were known in France, in 1746, where this fruit was early cultivated. In 1766 five species had been introduced, the same which are now cultivated, but only five varieties of Fragaria vesca, with some sub-varieties, had been produced. At the present day the varieties of the several species are almost innumerable. The species consist of, firstly, the wood or Alpine cultivated strawberries, descended from F. vesca, a native of Europe and of North America. There are eight wild European varieties, as ranked by Duchesne, of F. vesca, but several of these are considered species by some botanists. Secondly, the green strawberries, descended from the European F. collina, and little cultivated in England. Thirdly, the Hautbois, from the European F. elatior. Fourthly, the Scarlets, descended from F. virginiana, a native of the whole breadth of North America. Fifthly, the Chili, descended from F. chiloensis, an inhabitant of the west coast of the temperate parts both of North and South America. Lastly, the pines or Carolinas (including the old Blacks), which have been ranked by most authors under the name of F. grandiflora as a distinct species, said to inhabit Surinam; but this is a manifest error. This form is considered by the highest authority, M. Gay, to be merely a strongly marked race of F. chiloensis. (10/101. 'Le Fraisier' par le Comte L. de Lambertye 1864 page 50.) These five or six forms have been ranked by most botanists as specifically distinct; but this may be doubted, for Andrew Knight (10/102. 'Transact. Hort. Soc.' volume 3 1820 page 207.) who raised no less than 400 crossed strawberries, asserts that the F. virginiana, chiloensis and grandiflora "may be made to breed together indiscriminately," and he found, in accordance with the principle of analogous variation, "that similar varieties could be obtained from the seeds of any one of them."

Since Knight's time there is abundant and additional evidence (10/103. See an account by Prof. Decaisne, and by others in 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1862 page 335 and 1858 page 172; and Mr. Barnet's paper in 'Hort. Soc. Transact.' volume 6 1826 page 170.) of the extent to which the American forms spontaneously cross. We owe indeed to such crosses most of our choicest existing varieties. Knight did not succeed in crossing the European wood-strawberry with the American Scarlet or with the Hautbois. Mr. Williams of Pitmaston, however, succeeded; but the hybrid offspring from the Hautbois, though fruiting well, never produced seed, with the exception of a single one, which reproduced the parent hybrid form. (10/104. 'Transact. Hort. Soc.' volume 5 1824 page 294.) Major R. Trevor Clarke informs me that he crossed two members of the Pine class (Myatt's B. Queen and Keen's Seedling) with the wood and hautbois, and that in each case he raised only a single seedling; one of these fruited, but was almost barren. Mr. W. Smith, of York, has raised similar hybrids with equally poor success. (10/105. 'Journal of Horticulture' December 30, 1862 page 779. See also Mr. Prince to the same effect ibid 1863 page 418.) We thus see (10/106. For additional evidence see 'Journal of Horticulture' December 9, 1862 page 721.) that the European and American species can with some difficulty be crossed; but it is improbable that hybrids sufficiently fertile to be worth cultivation will ever be thus produced. This fact is surprising, as these forms structurally are not widely distinct, and are sometimes connected in the districts where they grow wild, as I hear from Professor Asa Gray, by puzzling intermediate forms.

The energetic culture of the Strawberry is of recent date, and the cultivated varieties can in most cases be classed under some one of the above native stocks. As the American strawberries cross so freely and spontaneously, we can hardly doubt that they will ultimately become inextricably confused. We find, indeed, that horticulturists at present disagree under which class to rank some few of the varieties; and a writer in the 'Bon Jardinier' of 1840 remarks that formerly it was possible to class all of them under some one species, but that now this is quite impossible with the American forms, the new English varieties having completely filled up the gaps between them. (10/107. 'Le Fraisier' par le Comte L. de Lambertye pages 221, 230.) The blending together of two or more aboriginal forms, which there is every reason to believe has occurred with some of our anciently cultivated productions, we see now actually occurring with our strawberries.

The cultivated species offer some variations worth notice. The Black Prince, a seedling from Keen's Imperial (this latter being a seedling of a very white strawberry, the white Carolina), is remarkable from "its peculiar dark and polished surface, and from presenting an appearance entirely unlike that of any other kind." (10/108. 'Transact. Hort. Soc.' volume 6 page 200.) Although the fruit in the different varieties differs so greatly in form, size, colour, and quality, the so-called seed (which corresponds with the whole fruit in the plum) with the exception of being more or less deeply embedded in the pulp, is, according to De Jonghe (10/109. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1858 page 173.) absolutely the same in all: and this no doubt may be accounted for by the seed being of no value, and consequently not having been subjected to selection. The strawberry is properly three-leaved, but in 1761 Duchesne raised a single-leaved variety of the European wood-strawberry, which Linnaeus doubtfully raised to the rank of a species. Seedlings of this variety, like those of most varieties not fixed by long-continued selection, often revert to the ordinary form, or present intermediate states. (10/110. Godron 'De l'Espece' tome 1 page 161.) A variety raised by Mr. Myatt (10/111. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1851 page 440.), apparently belonging to one of the American forms presents a variation of an opposite nature, for it has five leaves; Godron and Lambertye also mention a five-leaved variety of F. collina.

The Red Bush Alpine strawberry (one of the F. vesca section) does not produce stolons or runners, and this remarkable deviation of structure is reproduced truly by seed. Another sub-variety, the White Bush Alpine, is similarly characterised, but when propagated by seed it often degenerates and produces plants with runners. (10/112. F. Gloede in 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1862 page 1053.) A strawberry of the American Pine section is also said to make but few runners. (10/113. Downing 'Fruits' page 532.)

Much has been written on the sexes of strawberries; the true Hautbois properly bears the male and female organs on separate plants (10/114. Barnet in 'Hort. Transact.' volume 6 page 210.), and was consequently named by Duchesne dioica; but it frequently produces hermaphrodites; and Lindley (10/115. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1847 page 539.), by propagating such plants by runners, at the same time destroying the males, soon raised a self- prolific stock. The other species often showed a tendency towards an imperfect separation of the sexes, as I have noticed with plants forced in a hot-house. Several English varieties, which in this country are free from any such tendency, when cultivated in rich soils under the climate of North America (10/116. For the several statements with respect to the American strawberries see Downing 'Fruits' page 524; 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1843 page 188; 1847 page 539; 1861 page 717.) commonly produce plants with separate sexes. Thus a whole acre of Keen's Seedlings in the United States has been observed to be almost sterile from the absence of male flowers; but the more general rule is, that the male plants overrun the females. Some members of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society, especially appointed to investigate this subject, report that "few varieties have the flowers perfect in both sexual organs," etc. The most successful cultivators in Ohio plant for every seven rows of "pistillata," or female plants, one row of hermaphrodites, which afford pollen for both kinds; but the hermaphrodites, owing to their expenditure in the production of pollen, bear less fruit than the female plants.

The varieties differ in constitution. Some of our best English kinds, such as Keen's Seedlings, are too tender for certain parts of North America, where other English and many American varieties succeed perfectly. That splendid fruit, the British Queen, can be cultivated but in few places either in England or France: but this apparently depends more on the nature of the soil than on the climate; a famous gardener says that "no mortal could grow the British Queen at Shrubland Park unless the whole nature of the soil was altered." (10/117. Mr. D. Beaton in 'Cottage Gardener' 1860 page 86. See also 'Cottage Gardener' 1855 page 88 and many other authorities. For the Continent see F. Gloede in 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1862 page 1053.) La Constantine is one of the hardiest kinds, and can withstand Russian winters, but it is easily burnt by the sun, so that it will not succeed in certain soils either in England or the United States. (10/118. Rev. W.F. Radclyffe in 'Journal of Hort.' March 14, 1865 page 207.) The Filbert Pine Strawberry "requires more water than any other variety; and if the plants once suffer from drought, they will do little or no good afterwards." (10/119. Mr. H. Doubleday in 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1862 page 1101.) Cuthill's Black Prince Strawberry evinces a singular tendency to mildew; no less than six cases have been recorded of this variety suffering severely, whilst other varieties growing close by, and treated in exactly the same manner, were not at all infested by this fungus. (10/120. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1854 page 254.) The time of maturity differs much in the different varieties: some belonging to the wood or alpine section produce a succession of crops throughout the summer.

GOOSEBERRY (Ribes grossularia).

No one, I believe, has hitherto doubted that all the cultivated kinds are sprung from the wild plant bearing this name, which is common in Central and Northern Europe; therefore it will be desirable briefly to specify all the points, though not very important, which have varied. If it be admitted that these differences are due to culture, authors perhaps will not be so ready to assume the existence of a large number of unknown wild parent- stocks for our other cultivated plants. The gooseberry is not alluded to by writers of the classical period. Turner mentions it in 1573, and Parkinson specifies eight varieties in 1629; the Catalogue of the Horticultural Society for 1842 gives 149 varieties, and the lists of the Lancashire nurserymen are said to include above 300 names. (10/121. Loudon's 'Encyclop. of Gardening' page 930; and Alph. De Candolle 'Geograph. Bot.' page 910.) In the 'Gooseberry Grower's Register' for 1862 I find that 243 distinct varieties have won prizes at various periods, so that a vast number must have been exhibited. No doubt the difference between many of the varieties is very small; but Mr. Thompson in classifying the fruit for the Horticultural Society found less confusion in the nomenclature of the gooseberry than of any other fruit, and he attributes this "to the great interest which the prize-growers have taken in detecting sorts with wrong names," and this shows that all the kinds, numerous as they are, can be recognised with certainty.

The bushes differ in their manner of growth, being erect, or spreading, or pendulous. The periods of leafing and flowering differ both absolutely and relatively to each other; thus the Whitesmith produces early flowers, which from not being protected by the foliage, as it is believed, continually fail to produce fruit. (10/122. Loudon's 'Gardener's Magazine' volume 4 1828 page 112.) The leaves vary in size, tint, and in depth of lobes; they are smooth, downy, or hairy on the upper surface. The branches are more or less downy or spinose; "the Hedgehog has probably derived its name from the singular bristly condition of its shoots and fruit." The branches of the wild gooseberry, I may remark, are smooth, with the exception of thorns at the bases of the buds. The thorns themselves are either very small, few and single, or very large and triple; they are sometimes reflexed and much dilated at their bases. In the different varieties the fruit varies in abundance, in the period of maturity, in hanging until shrivelled, and greatly in size, "some sorts having their fruit large during a very early period of growth, whilst others are small, until nearly ripe." The fruit varies also much in colour, being red, yellow, green, and white — the pulp of one dark-red gooseberry being tinged with yellow; in flavour; in being smooth or downy, — few, however, of the Red gooseberries, whilst many of the so-called Whites, are downy; or in being so spinose that one kind is called Henderson's Porcupine. Two kinds acquire when mature a powdery bloom on their fruit. The fruit varies in the thickness and veining of the skin, and, lastly, in shape, being spherical, oblong, oval, or obovate. (10/123. The fullest account of the gooseberry is given by Mr. Thompson in 'Transact. Hort. Soc.' volume 1 2nd series 1835 page 218 from which most of the foregoing facts are taken.)

I cultivated fifty-four varieties, and, considering how greatly the fruit differs, it was curious how closely similar the flowers were in all these kinds. In only a few I detected a trace of difference in the size or colour of the corolla. The calyx differed in a rather greater degree, for in some kinds it was much redder than in others; and in one smooth white gooseberry it was unusually red. The calyx also differed in the basal part being smooth or woolly, or covered with glandular hairs. It deserves notice, as being contrary to what might have been expected from the law of correlation, that a smooth red gooseberry had a remarkably hairy calyx. The flowers of the Sportsman are furnished with very large coloured bracteae; and this is the most singular deviation of structure which I have observed. These same flowers also varied much in the number of the petals, and occasionally in the number of the stamens and pistils; so that they were semi-monstrous in structure, yet they produced plenty of fruit. Mr. Thompson remarks that in the Pastime gooseberry "extra bracts are often attached to the sides of the fruit." (10/124. 'Catalogue of Fruits of Hort. Soc. Garden' 3rd edition 1842.)

The most interesting point in the history of the gooseberry is the steady increase in the size of the fruit. Manchester is the metropolis of the fanciers, and prizes from five shillings to five or ten pounds are yearly given for the heaviest fruit. The 'Gooseberry Growers Register' is published annually; the earliest known copy is dated 1786, but it is certain that meetings for the adjudication of prizes were held some years previously. (10/125. Mr. Clarkson of Manchester on the Culture of the Gooseberry in Loudon's 'Gardener's Magazine' volume 4 1828 page 482.) The 'Register' for 1845 gives an account of 171 Gooseberry Shows, held in different places during that year; and this fact shows on how large a scale the culture has been carried on. The fruit of the wild gooseberry is said (10/126. Downing 'Fruits of America' page 213.) to weigh about a quarter of an ounce or 5 dwts., that is, 120 grains; about the year 1786 gooseberries were exhibited weighing 10 dwts., so that the weight was then doubled; in 1817 26 dwts. 17 grs. was attained; there was no advance till 1825, when 31 dwts. 16 grs. was reached; in 1830 "Teazer" weighed 32 dwts. 13 grs.; in 1841 "Wonderful" weighed 32 dwts. 16 grs.; in 1844 "London" weighed 35 dwts. 12 grs., and in the following year 36 dwts. 16 grs.; and in 1852 in Staffordshire, the fruit of the same variety reached the astonishing weight of 37 dwts. 7 grs. (10/127. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1844 page 811 where a table is given; and 1845 page 819. For the extreme weights gained see 'Journal of Horticulture' July 26, 1864 page 61.) or 896 grs.; that is, between seven or eight times the weight of the wild fruit. I find that a small apple, 6 1/2 inches in circumference, has exactly this same weight. The "London" gooseberry (which in 1852 had altogether gained 333 prizes) has, up to the present year of 1875, never reached a greater weight than that attained in 1852. Perhaps the fruit of the gooseberry has now reached the greatest possible weight, unless in the course of time some new and distinct variety shall arise.

This gradual, and on the whole steady increase of weight from the latter part of the last century to the year 1852, is probably in large part due to improved methods of cultivation, for extreme care is now taken; the branches and roots are trained, composts are made, the soil is mulched, and only a few berries are left on each bush (10/128. Mr. Saul of Lancaster in Loudon's 'Gardener's Mag.' volume 3 1828 page 421; and volume 10 1834 page 42.) but the increase no doubt is in main part due to the continued selection of seedlings which have been found to be more and more capable of yielding such extraordinary fruit. Assuredly the "Highwayman" in 1817 could not have produced fruit like that of the "Roaring Lion" in 1825; nor could the "Roaring Lion," though it was grown by many persons in many places, gain the supreme triumph achieved in 1852 by the "London" Gooseberry.

WALNUT (Juglans regia).

This tree and the common nut belong to a widely different order from the foregoing fruits, and are therefore here noticed. The walnut grows wild on the Caucasus and in the Himalaya, where Dr. Hooker (10/129. 'Himalayan Journals' 1854 volume 2 page 334. Moorcroft 'Travels' volume 2 page 146 describes four varieties cultivated in Kashmir.) found the fruit of full size, but "as hard as a hickory-nut." It has been found fossil, as M. de Saporta informs me, in the tertiary formation, of France.

In England the walnut presents considerable differences, in the shape and size of the fruit, in the thickness of the husk, and in the thinness of the shell; this latter quality has given rise to a variety called the thin- shelled, which is valuable, but suffers from the attacks of titmice. (10/130. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1850 page 723.) The degree to which the kernel fills the shell varies much. In France there is a variety called the Grape or cluster-walnut, in which the nuts grow in "bunches of ten, fifteen, or even twenty together." There is another variety which bears on the same tree differently shaped leaves, like the heterophyllous hornbeam; this tree is also remarkable from having pendulous branches, and bearing elongated, large, thin-shelled nuts. (10/131. Paper translated in Loudon's 'Gardener's Mag.' 1829 volume 5 page 202.) M. Cardan has minutely described (10/132. Quoted in 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1849 page 101.) some singular physiological peculiarities in the June-leafing variety, which produces its leaves and flowers four or five weeks later than the common varieties; and although in August it is apparently in exactly the same state of forwardness as the other kinds, it retains its leaves and fruit much later in the autumn. These constitutional peculiarities are strictly inherited. Lastly, walnut-trees, which are properly monoicous, sometimes entirely fail to produce male flowers. (10/133. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1847 pages 541 and 558.)

NUTS (Corylus avellana).

Most botanists rank all the varieties under the same species, the common wild nut. (10/134. The following details are taken from the 'Catalogue of Fruits, 1842 in Garden of Hort. Soc.' page 103; and from Loudon's 'Encyclop. of Gardening' page 943.) The husk, or involucre, differs greatly, being extremely short in Barr's Spanish, and extremely long in filberts, in which it is contracted so as to prevent the nut falling out. This kind of husk also protects the nut from birds, for titmice (Parus) have been observed (10/135. 'Gardener's Chron.' 1860 page 956.) to pass over filberts, and attack cobs and common nuts growing in the same orchard. In the purple-filbert the husk is purple, and in the frizzled-filbert it is curiously laciniated; in the red-filbert the pellicle of the kernel is red. The shell is thick in some varieties, but is thin in Cosford's-nut, and in one variety is of a bluish colour. The nut itself differs much in size and shape, being ovate and compressed in filberts, nearly round and of great size in cobs and Spanish nuts, oblong and longitudinally striated in Cosford's, and obtusely four-sided in the Downton Square nut.

CUCURBITACEOUS PLANTS.

These plants have been for a long period the opprobrium of botanists; numerous varieties have been ranked as species, and, what happens more rarely, forms which now must be considered as species have been classed as varieties. Owing to the admirable experimental researches of a distinguished botanist, M. Naudin (10/136. 'Annales des Sc. Nat. Bot.' 4th series volume 6 1856 page 5.), a flood of light has recently been thrown on this group of plants. M. Naudin, during many years, observed and experimented on above 1200 living specimens, collected from all quarters of the world. Six species are now recognised in the genus Cucurbita; but three alone have been cultivated and concern us, namely, C. maxima and pepo, which include all pumpkins, gourds, squashes, and the vegetable marrow, and C. moschata. These three species are not known in a wild state; but Asa Gray (10/137. 'American Journ. of Science' 2nd series volume 24 1857 page 442.) gives good reason for believing that some pumpkins are natives of N. America.