Science and Practice in Farm Cultivation

ces 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 resu

ton's "Cyclop?dia 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. Ha

lence and tenderness of their roots, has been experimentally proved by M. Vilmorin, who succeeded in obtaining by culti

ally 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 f

ty 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, asparag

d 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.

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, w

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 i