In visiting the plantations of
the seedsmen in summer and examining the large fields of garden-flowers
from which seed is to be gathered, it is very rare to find a plot quite
pure. On the contrary, occasional impurities are the rule. Every plot
shows anomalous individuals, red or white flowers among a field of blue,
normal among laciniated, single among double and so on. The most curious
instance is afforded by dwarf varieties, where in the midst of hundreds
and thousands of small individuals of the same height, some specimens
show twice their size. So for instance, among the dwarfs of the
larkspur, _Delphinium Ajacis_.
Everywhere gardeners are occupied in destroying these "atavists," as
they call them. When in full bloom the plants are pulled up and thrown
aside. Sometimes the degree of impurity is so high, that great piles of
discarded plants of the same species lie about the [193] paths, as I
have seen at Erfurt in the ease of numerous varieties of the Indian
cress or _Tropaeolum_.
Each variety is purified at the time when it shows its characters most
clearly. With vegetables, this is done long before flowering, but with
flowers only when in full bloom, and with fruits, usually after
fertilization has been accomplished. It needs no demonstration to show
that this difference in method must result in very diverging degrees of
purity.
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