I will give only a few well-marked cases. Gartner has seen (11/23. 'Bastarderzeugung' 1849 s. 76.) 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 (11/24. 'Journal of Horticulture' 1861 page 336.) 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. (11/25. W.P. Ayres 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1842 page 791.) 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. (11/26. W.P. Ayres ibid.) 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." (11/27. Dr. Maxwell Masters 'Pop. Science Review' July 1872 page 250.) 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 (11/28. 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1861 page 968.) 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 (11/29. Ibid 1861 page 945.); but one at least of these did not arise through bud-variation, but is believed to be a seedling from Rollisson's Unique. (11/30. W. Paul 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1861 page 968.) There are, also, in the trade (11/31. Ibid page 945.) 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. (11/32. For other cases of bud-variation in this same variety see 'Gardener's Chronicle' 1861 pages 578, 600, 925. For other distinct cases of bud-variation in the genus Pelargonium see 'Cottage Gardener' 1860 page 194.) 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. (11/33. Dr. Maxwell Masters 'Pop. Science Review' July 1872 page 254.) 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. (11/34. Rev. W.T. Bree in Loudon's 'Gardener's Mag.' volume 8 1832 page 93.)
CHRYSANTHEMUM.
This plant frequently sports, both by its lateral branches and occasionally by suckers.