Variegated leaves fluctuate between green and white,
or green and yellow, and display these colors in nearly all possible
patterns. But there variability ends, and even the patterns are
ordinarily narrowly prescribed in the single varieties. Double flowers
afford a similar instance. On one side the single type, on the other the
nearly wholly double model are the extreme limits, between which the
variability is confined. So it is also with monstrosities. The race
consists of anomalous and normal individuals, and displays between them
all possible combinations of normal and monstrous [313] parts. But its
variability is restricted to this group. And large as the group may seem
on first inspection, it is in reality very narrow. Many monstrosities,
such as fasciated branches, pitchers, split leaves, peloric flowers, and
others constitute such ever-sporting varieties, repeating their
anomalies year by year and generation after generation, changing as much
as possible, but remaining absolutely true within their limits as long
as the variety exists.
It must be a very curious combination of the unit-characters which
causes such a state of continuous variability. The pure quality of the
species must be combined with the peculiarity of the variety in such a
way, that the one excludes the other, or modifies it to some extent,
although both never fully display themselves in the same part of the
same plant.
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