Flowers.—Many cases have been recorded of a whole plant, or single branch, or bud, suddenly producing flowers different from the proper type in colour, form, size, doubleness, or other character. Half the flower, or a smaller segment, sometimes changes colour.
Camellia.—The myrtle-leaved species (C. myrtifolia), and two or three varieties of the common species, have been known to produce hexagonal and imperfectly quadrangular flowers; and the branches producing such flowers have been propagated by grafting.[[17]] The Pompon variety often bears “four distinguishable kinds of flowers,—the pure white and the red-eyed, which appear promiscuously; the brindled pink and the rose-coloured, which may be kept separate with tolerable certainty by grafting from the branches that bear them.” A branch, also, on an old tree of the rose-coloured variety has been seen to “revert to the pure white colour, an occurrence less common than the departure from it.”[[18]]
Cratægus oxyacantha.—A dark pink hawthorn has been known to throw out a single tuft of pure white blossoms;[[19]] and Mr. A. Clapham, nurseryman, of Bedford, informs me that his father had a deep crimson thorn grafted on a white thorn, which during several years, always bore, high above the graft, bunches of white, pink and deep crimson flowers.
Azalea indica is well known often to produce new varieties by buds. I have myself seen several cases. A plant of Azalea indica variegata has been exhibited bearing a truss of flowers of A. ind. gledstanesii “as true as could possibly be produced, thus evidencing the origin of that fine variety.” On another plant of A. ind. variegata a perfect flower of A. ind. lateritia was produced; so that both gledstanesii and lateritia no doubt originally appeared as sporting branches of A. ind. variegata.[[20]]
Hibiscus (Paritium tricuspis).—A seedling of this plant, when some years old, produced, at Saharunpore,[[21]] some branches “which bore leaves and flowers widely different from the normal form.” “The abnormal leaf is much less divided, and not acuminated. The petals are considerably larger, and quite entire. There is also in the fresh state a conspicuous, large, oblong gland, full of a viscid secretion, on the back of each of the calycine segments.” Dr. King, who subsequently had charge of these Gardens, informs me that a tree of Paritium tricuspis (probably the very same plant) growing there, had a branch buried in the ground, apparently by accident; and this branch changed its character wonderfully, growing like a bush, and producing flowers and leaves, resembling in shape those of another species, viz., P. tiliaceum. A small branch springing from this bush near the ground, reverted to the parent-form. Both forms were extensively propagated during several years by cuttings and kept perfectly true.
Althæa rosea.—A double yellow Hollyhock suddenly turned one year into a pure white single kind; subsequently a branch bearing the original double yellow flowers reappeared in the midst of the branches of the single white kind.[[22]]
Pelargonium.—These highly cultivated plants seem eminently liable to bud-variation. I will give only a few well-marked cases. Gärtner has seen[[23]] a plant of P. zonale with a branch having white edges, which remained constant for years, and bore flowers of a deeper red than usual. Generally speaking, such branches present little or no difference in their flowers: thus a writer[[24]] pinched off the leading shoot of a seedling P. zonale, and it threw out three branches, which differed in the size and colour of their leaves and stems; but on all three branches “the flowers were identical,” except in being largest in the green-stemmed variety, and smallest in that with variegated foliage: these three varieties were subsequently propagated and distributed. Many branches, and some whole plants, of a variety called compactum, which bears orange-scarlet flowers, have been seen to produce pink flowers.[[25]] Hill’s Hector, which is a pale red variety, produced a branch with lilac flowers, and some trusses with both red and lilac flowers. This apparently is a case of reversion, for Hill’s Hector was a seedling from a lilac variety.[[26]] Here is a better case of reversion: a variety produced from a complicated cross, after having been propagated for five generations by seed, yielded by bud-variation three very distinct varieties which were undistinguishable from plants, “known to have been at some time ancestors of the plant in question.”[[27]] Of all Pelargoniums, Rollisson’s Unique seems to be the most sportive; its origin is not positively known, but is believed to be from a cross. Mr. Salter, of Hammersmith, states[[28]] that he has himself known this purple variety to produce the lilac, the rose-crimson or conspicuum, and the red or coccineum varieties; the latter has also produced the rose d’amour; so that altogether four varieties have originated by bud variation from Rollisson’s Unique. Mr. Salter remarks that these four varieties “may now be considered as fixed, although they occasionally produce flowers of the original colour. This year coccineum has pushed flowers of three different colours, red, rose, and lilac, upon the same truss, and upon other trusses are flowers half red and half lilac.” Besides these four varieties, two other scarlet Uniques are known to exist, both of which occasionally produce lilac flowers identical with Rollisson’s Unique;[[29]] but one at least of these did not arise through bud-variation, but is believed to be a seedling from Rollisson’s Unique.[[30]] There are, also, in the trade[[31]] two other slightly different varieties, of unknown origin, of Rollisson’s Unique: so that altogether we have a curiously complex case of variation both by buds and seeds.[[32]] Here is a still more complex case: M. Rafarin states that a pale rose-coloured variety produced a branch bearing deep red flowers. “Cuttings were taken from this ‘sport,’ from which 20 plants were raised, which flowered in 1867, when it was found that scarcely two were alike.” Some resembled the parent-form, some resembled the sport, some bore both kinds of flowers; and even some of the petals on the same flower were rose-coloured and others red.[[33]] An English wild plant, the Geranium pratense, when cultivated in a garden, has been seen to produce on the same plant both blue and white, and striped blue and white flowers.[[34]]
Chrysanthemum.—This plant frequently sports, both by its lateral branches and occasionally by suckers. A seedling raised by Mr. Salter has produced by bud-variation six distinct sorts, five different in colour and one in foliage, all of which are now fixed.[[35]] A variety called cedo nulli bears small yellow flowers, but habitually produces branches with white flowers; and a specimen was exhibited, which Prof. T. Dyer saw, before the Horticultural Society. The varieties which were first introduced from China were so excessively variable, “that it was extremely difficult to tell which was the original colour of the variety, and which was the sport.” The same plant would produce one year only buff-coloured, and next year only rose-coloured flowers; and then would change again, or produce at the same time flowers of both colours. These fluctuating varieties are now all lost, and, when a branch sports into a new variety, it can generally be propagated and kept true; but, as Mr. Salter remarks, “every sport should be thoroughly tested in different soils before it can be really considered as fixed, as many have been known to run back when planted in rich compost; but when sufficient care and time are expended in proving, there will exist little danger of subsequent disappointment.” Mr. Salter informs me that with all the varieties the commonest kind of bud-variation is the production of yellow flowers, and, as this is the primordial colour, these cases may be attributed to reversion. Mr. Salter has given me a list of seven differently coloured chrysanthemums, which have all produced branches with yellow flowers; but three of them have also sported into other colours. With any change of colour in the flower, the foliage generally changes in a corresponding manner in lightness or darkness.
Another Compositous plant, namely, Centauria cyanus, when cultivated in a garden, not unfrequently produces on the same root flowers of four different colours, viz., blue, white, dark-purple, and parti-coloured.[[36]] The flowers of Anthemis also vary on the same plant.[[37]]
Roses.—Many varieties of the Rose are known or are believed to have originated by bud-variation.[[38]] The common double moss-rose was imported into England from Italy about the year 1735.[[39]] Its origin is unknown, but from analogy it probably arose from the Provence rose (R. centifolia) by bud-variation; for the branches of the common moss-rose have several times been known to produce Provence roses, wholly or partially destitute of moss: I have seen one such instance, and several others have been recorded.[[40]] Mr. Rivers also informs me that he raised two or three roses of the Provence class from seed of the old single moss-rose;[[41]] and this latter kind was produced in 1807 by bud-variation from the common moss-rose. The white moss-rose was also produced in 1788 by an offset from the common red moss-rose: it was at first pale blush-coloured, but became white by continued budding. On cutting down the shoots which had produced this white moss-rose, two weak shoots were thrown up, and buds from these yielded the beautiful striped moss-rose. The common moss-rose has yielded by bud-variation, besides the old single red moss-rose, the old scarlet semi-double moss-rose, and the sage-leaf moss-rose, which “has a delicate shell-like form, and is of a beautiful blush colour; it is now (1852) nearly extinct.”[[42]] A white moss-rose has been seen to bear a flower half white and half pink.[[43]] Although several moss-roses have thus certainly arisen by bud-variation, the greater number probably owe their origin to seed of moss-roses. For Mr. Rivers informs me that his seedlings from the old single moss-rose almost always produced moss-roses; and the old single moss-rose was, as we have seen, the product by bud-variation of the double moss-rose originally imported from Italy. That the original moss-rose was the product of bud-variation is probable, from the facts above given and from the de Meaux moss-rose (also a variety of R. centifolia)[[44]] having appeared as a sporting branch on the common rose de Meaux. Prof. Caspary has carefully described[[45]] the case of a six-year-old white moss-rose, which sent up several suckers, one of which was thorny, and produced red flowers, destitute of moss, exactly like those of the Provence rose (R. centifolia): another shoot bore both kinds of flowers, and in addition longitudinally striped flowers. As this white moss-rose had been grafted on the Provence rose, Prof. Caspary attributes the above changes to the influence of the stock; but from the facts already given, and from others to be given, bud-variation, with reversion, is probably a sufficient explanation.