No two
individuals can be found quite alike; thus if we sow a number of seeds
from the same capsule under as nearly as possible the same conditions,
they germinate at different rates and grow more or less vigorously. They
resist cold and other unfavourable conditions differently. They would in
all probability, as we know to be the case with animals of the same
species, be somewhat differently acted on by the same poison, or by the
same disease. They have different powers of transmitting their
characters to their offspring; and many analogous facts could be given.
(12/12. Vilmorin as quoted by Verlot 'Des Varieties' pages 32, 38, 39.)
Now, if it were true that plants growing near together in a state of
nature had been subjected during many previous generations to absolutely
the same conditions, such differences as those just specified would be
quite inexplicable; but they are to a certain extent intelligible in
accordance with the views just advanced.
As most of the plants on which I experimented were grown in my garden or
in pots under glass, a few words must be added on the conditions to
which they were exposed, as well as on the effects of cultivation. When
a species is first brought under culture, it may or may not be subjected
to a change of climate, but it is always grown in ground broken up, and
more or less manured; it is also saved from competition with other
plants.
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