Many organs and many qualities may be lost in the origination of a variety. In some instances the petals may disappear, as in _Nigella_, or the stamens, as in the Guelder-rose (_Viburnum Opulus_) and the _Hortensia_ and in some bulbs even the whole flowers may be wanting, as in the beautiful "Plumosa" form of the cultivated grape-hyacinth or _Muscari comosum_. Fruits of the pineapples and bananas without seeds are on record as well as some varieties of apples and pears, of raisins and oranges. And some years ago Mr. Riviere of Algeria described a date growing in his garden that forms fruit without pits. The stoneless plum of Mr. [135] Burbank of Santa Rosa, California, is also a very curious variety, the kernel of which is fully developed but naked, no hard substance intervening between it and the pulp. More curious still are the unbranched varieties consisting of a single stem, as may be seen sometimes in the corn or maize and in the fir. Fir-trees of some three or four meters in height without a single branch, wholly naked and bearing leaves only on the shoots of the last year's growth at the apex of the tree, may be seen. Of course they cannot bear seed, and so it is with the sterile maize, which never produces any seed-spikes or staminate flowers. Other seedless varieties can be propagated by buds; their origin is in most cases unknown, and we are not sure as to whether they should be classified with the constant or with the inconstant varieties. A very curious loss is that of starch in the grains of the sugar-corn and the sugar-peas. It is replaced by sugar or some allied substance (dextrine). Equally remarkable is the loss of the runners in the so-called "Gaillon" strawberries. Among trees the pendulous or weeping, and the broomlike or fastigiate forms are very marked varieties, which occur in species belonging to quite different orders. The ash, the beach, some willows, many other trees and some [136] finer species of garden-plants, as _Sophora japonica_, have given rise to weeping varieties, and the yew-tree or _Taxus_ has a fastigiate form which is much valued because of its ascending branches and pyramidal habit. So it is with the pyramidal varieties of oaks, elms, the bastard-acacia and some others.