sporting plant

Bot. & Hort.: The name given by gardeners to plants which have suddenly produced a single bud with a new and sometimes widely different character from that of the other buds. Darwin calls them bud-variations, and says that they can be propagated by grafts, ., and sometimes by seed. They rarely occur in plants in a state of nature, but are common under culture. (Origin of Species , ch. i.) sporting-pre , s. That portion of the public pre devoted exclusively or mainly to the interests of sport.