On 5 Jul 04 at 11:04, zonneveld wrote: > Kevin wrote: > > And then there are things/clones that exists > > through time w/o change. > I am sure every clone will in time accumulate rare mutations > Actually if a single clone is multiplied in two different locations > by two different people they will in time differ It may be > sometime before a visible mutation has happened In "Plant Breeding" by Liberty Hyde Bailey, the renowned American horticulturist, the point is made that even within clones there is considerable variation. Bailey asserts that in an apple orchard of only one cultivar, the individual trees will show significant variation, and that even the twigs on one tree vary. Unless I mis-read or mis-remember the text, he even asserts that such intra-clonal variation is as great as that in a batch of seedlings. I must admit that I think Bailey overstated the degree of variation in clones, but on the other hand he was not an idiot and knew a lot more than I do. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada "To co-work is human, to cow-ork, bovine."