60 
AZALEA Ludoviciæ. 
Garden Hybrid. 
RHODODENDRON (AZALEA) Ludovicie. W. Herbert in litteris. 
This charming variety has been named Ludovicie by 
the Dean of Manchester, in compliment to his eldest 
daughter Louisa. It is a sister seedling to that lately 
figured (t. 51.), under the name of Letitia, from Rhodo- 
dendron ponticum by pollen of Azalea pontica. 
Nothing can be prettier than their delicately coloured 
flowers. In the present instance, instead of a pale yellow 
or straw colour being the prevailing colour, we have a gay 
rosy tint superadded. 
No one would have believed, upon slighter evidence than 
that of the Dean of Manchester, that such plants as have 
thus been figured were seedlings from the Pontic Rhododen- 
dron, to which they bear no manner of resemblance ; and 
they teach us a lesson in possibilities, which persons unac- 
quainted with such facts will do well to recollect. If the 
common Pontic Rhododendron can by art, however applied, 
be compelled to bring forth a Pontic Azalea, there remains 
no ground for regarding as impossible even such results as 
the production of Rye, by Wheat or Barley, or of Plums from 
Pear trees. Events of that kind become conceivable, how- 
ever improbable they may appear; and such speculations 
stand on a surer foundation than the doctrine of atavism,* 
which some naturalists admit without reserve. 
* Atavism (from afavus, an ancestor) is the doctrine that beings of 
either the animal or vegetable kingdom bear much more resemblance to their 
grand-parents than to their immediate parent. A man, according to those 
Who adopt this opinion, resembles his grandfather more than his father ; 
and a seedling follows the same law. Thus, according to Professor Morren, 
who advocates this notion, if we wish to obtain a seedling Kidney Potato 
we should sow the seed of a Round Potato, and vice versa; the rule of 
resemblance being this, 
Long Potato, 
Son : . . i 
Father . : : . Round Potato, 
Grandfather . : . Long Potato, 
Great Grandfather . Round Potato, 
and so on. 
