r
of bodily organs, and that, in respect of these, our lot has been much
the same as that of other animals."[130]

_Plants under Domestication._

"If more modern and even recent examples are required in order to prove
man's power over the vegetable kingdom, it is only necessary to compare
our vegetables, flowers, and fruits with the same species such as they
were a hundred and fifty years ago; this can be done with much ease and
certainty by running the eye over the great collection of coloured
drawings begun in the time of Gaston of Orleans, and continued to the
present day at the Jardin du Roi. We find with surprise that the finest
flowers of that date, as the ranunculuses, pinks, tulips, bear's ears,
&c., would be rejected now, I do not say by our florists, but by our
village gardeners. These flowers, though then already cultivated, were
still not far above their wild condition. They had a single row of
petals only, long pistils, colours hard and false; they had little
velvety texture, variety, or gradation of tints, and, in fact, presented
all the characteristics of untamed nature. Of herbs there was a single
kind of endive, and two of lettuce--both bad--while we can now reckon
more than fifty lettuces and endives, all excellent. We can even name
the very recent dates of our best pippins and kernel fruits--all of them
differing from those of our forefathers, which they resemble in name
only. In most cases things remain while names change; here, on the
contrary, it is the names that have been constant while the things have
varied.[131]

. . . . . .

"It is not that every one of these good varieties did not arise from the
same wild stock; but how many attempts has not man made on Nature before
he succeeded in getting them. How many millions of germs has he not
committed to the earth, before she has rewarded him by producing them?
It was only by sowing, tending, and bringing to maturity an almost
infinite number of plants of the same kind that he was able to recognize
some individuals with fruits sweeter and better than others; and this
first discovery, which itself involves so much care, would have remained
for ever fruitless if he had not made a second, which required as much
genius as the first required patience--I mean the art of grafting those
precious individuals, which, unfortunately, cannot continue a line as
noble as their own, nor themselves propagate their rare and admirable
qualities? And this a