ON THE ORIGIN OF SORTS OF ROOTS.
As crop plants are derived from wild ones, as the effect of cultivation,
it follows as a matter of course that these will be varied, both in form
and constitution, according to the circumstances under which they have
been produced. Thus we may expect that any attempts to ennoble a wild
root in different countries would not, even if successful, be sure to
bring about the same results. Much depends even upon the individual root
with which our trial may be started, and more upon the judgment employed
in selecting the stock from which the experiments are to be continued.
That position and soil may make a great difference may be inferred from
the fact that the attempts to improve the wild parsnip and carrot have
met with varied success. De Candolle is reported to have tried to
improve the carrot with success, whilst with the parsnip he utterly
failed; whilst Professor Lindley, in Morton’s “Cyclopædia of
Agriculture,” tells us that M. Ponsard has ascertained that “the wild
parsnip becomes improved immediately when cultivated, and that
experiments in improving its quality promise well:” how well, indeed,
may be seen from the foregoing chapter. But still, we utterly failed
with the wild carrot. Having collected seeds of the _Daucus Carota_ (the
common wild carrot) from some fine specimens growing on the road-side
between Cirencester and Cheltenham, they were subjected to experiment at
the same time as the parsnip, but with little, if any, favourable
result. Upon this plant Professor Lindley observes as follows:—
That the hard-rooted wild carrot is really the parent of our
cultivated varieties, remarkable as they are for the succulence and
tenderness of their roots, has been experimentally proved by M.
Vilmorin, who succeeded in obtaining by cultivation perfectly
tender, eatable roots, from seeds saved from plants only three or
four generations off the wild species.
Still, a modern French naturalist of great experience, M. Decaisne,
tells us that he has tried to ennoble the wild carrot, and has not
succeeded; and from this he draws the conclusion that our cultivated
forms were created specially for the use of man. As we should suppose
that very few botanists agree to this theory, we shall let the facts we
have already brought forward stand in maintenance of its opposite,
namely, that cultivated forms are derived from wild species often
apparently very different; but at the same time it may be well to state,
that in all probability some of the discrepancies of experimenters may
have arisen from some confusion in the species operated upon.
In 1860 we gathered some seed of the _Daucus maritima_ (sea-side carrot)
at Bognor, which, on being sown in a prepared plot the following spring,
certainly resulted in fairly succulent roots, which on being cooked were
pronounced by our party of four to be excellent. While on this subject,
it may be mentioned as not a little remarkable, that so many of our
garden esculents should be derived from sea-side plants. Thus, probably
carrot, but certainly celery, sea-kale, asparagus, and cabbage. This
would seem to point to the fact that cultivation requires a complete
change of the circumstances necessary to maintain a wild condition; and
hence cultivated plants can only be kept up by the labours of a
cultivator.
Now, as regards the sea-side carrot, we are after all inclined to the
belief that it is the parent of the cultivated varieties, whilst, on the
other hand, we view the _Daucus Carota_ (the wild inland carrot) as a
probable descendant from the cultivated or garden stock; and if this be
so, the _Daucus maritima_ is the original species from which both the
wild and cultivated races have descended. Bentham, indeed, carries this
view a little further, the following remarks tending to throw doubts
upon the carrot in any form as being a true native. Under the heading of
_Daucus Carota_ he says:—
Probably an original native of the sea-coasts of modern Europe, but
of very ancient cultivation, and sows itself most readily, soon
degenerating to the wild form, with a slender root, and _now_ most
abundant in fields, pastures, waste places, &c., throughout Europe
and Russian Asia; common in Britain, especially near the sea.
_Flowers the whole summer and autumn._ A decidedly maritime
variety, with the leaves somewhat fleshy, with shorter segments,
more or less thickened peduncles, more spreading umbels, and more
flattened prickles to the fruits, is often considered as a distinct
species.
Seeing then that crop plants are derivatives from a wild stock, we can
readily understand how the varying circumstances attendant upon the
development of the former should tend to the production of varieties,
and this merely as the result of the treatment of the fairly derived
legitimate seed. If, again, we take these variations for the purpose of
obtaining hybrids, we need not wonder at the infinite variety of sorts
which can be brought about, but rather that any sort could be maintained
in that trueness of character or in that state of permanency which we
sometimes find to be the case.