ABSTRACT
This chapter explores all the cases of bud-variation and their importance. It includes all those sudden changes in structure or appearance which occasionally occur in full-grown plants in their flower-buds or leaf-buds. Bud-varieties have as yet been observed only in the vegetable kingdom. Mr. Knight has recorded the case of a branch of a May-Duke cherry, which, though certainly never grafted, always produced fruit, ripening later, and more oblong than the fruit on the other branches. The black or purple Frontignan in one case produced during two successive years spurs which bore white Frontignan grapes. The myrtle-leaved species and two or three varieties of the common species, have been known to produce hexagonal and imperfectly quadrangular flowers. Chrysanthemums 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.
