animals. For instance, Mr. Hewitt (13/6. 'The Poultry Book' by Mr. Tegetmeier
1866 page 231.) states that chickens bred from some rumpless fowls, which were
reckoned so good that they won a prize at an exhibition, "in a considerable
number of instances were furnished with fully developed tail-feathers." On
inquiry, the original breeder of these fowls stated that, from the time when
he had first kept them, they had often produced fowls furnished with tails;
but that these latter would again reproduce rumpless chickens.

Analogous cases of reversion occur in the vegetable kingdom; thus "from seeds
gathered from the finest cultivated varieties of Heartsease (Viola tricolor),
plants perfectly wild both in their foliage and their flowers are frequently
produced;" (13/7. Loudon's 'Gardener's Mag.' volume 10 1834 page 396: a
nurseryman, with much experience on this subject, has likewise assured me that
this sometimes occurs.) but the reversion in this instance is not to a very
ancient period, for the best existing varieties of the heartsease are of
comparatively modern origin. With most of our cultivated vegetables there is
some tendency to reversion to what is known to be, or may be presumed to be,
their aboriginal state; and this would be more evident if gardeners did not
generally look over their beds of seedlings, and pull up the false plants or
"rogues" as they are called. It has already been remarked, that some few
seedling apples and pears generally resemble, but apparently are not identical
with, the wild trees from which they are descended. In our turnip (13/8.
'Gardener's Chronicle' 1855 page 777.) and carrot-beds a few plants often
"break "--that is, flower too soon; and their roots are generally hard and
stringy, as in the parent-species. By the aid of a little selection, carried
on during a few generations, most of our cultivated plants could probably be
brought back, without any great change in their conditions of life, to a wild
or nearly wild condition: Mr. Buckman has effected this with the parsnip
(13/9. Ibid 1862 page 721.); and Mr. Hewett C. Watson, as he informs me,
selected, during three generations, "the most diverging plants of Scotch kail,