264 HYBRIDISM. 



pod of Crinum capense fertilized by C. revolutura produced 

 a plant, which I never saw to occur in a case of its natural 

 fecundation." So that here we have perfect, or even more 

 than commonly perfect, fertility, in a first cross between 

 two distinct species. 



This case of the Crinum leads me to refer to a singular 

 fact, namely, that individual plants of certain species of 

 Lobelia, Verbascum, and Passiflora, can easily be fertilized 

 by the pollen from a distinct species, but not by pollen from 

 the same plant, though this pollen can be proved to be 

 perfectly sound by fertilizing other plants or species. In 

 the genus Hippeastrum, in Corydalis, as shown by Professor 

 Hildebrand, in various orchids as shown by Mr. Scott and 

 Fritz Miiller, all the individuals are in this peculiar condi- 

 tion. So that with some species certain abnormal individ- 

 uals, and in other species all the individuals, can actually be 

 hybridized much more readily than they can be fertilized by 

 pollen from the same individual plant ! To give one 

 instance, a bulb of Hippeastrum aulicum produced four 

 flowers ; three were fertilized by Herbert with their own 

 pollen, and the fourth was subsequently fertilized by the 

 pollen of a compound hybrid descended from three distinct 

 species ; the result was that " the ovaries of the three first 

 flowers soon ceased to grow, and after a few days perished 

 entirely, whereas the pod impregnated by the pollen of the 

 hybrid made vigorous growth and rapid progress to matur- 

 ity, and bore good seed, which vegetated freely." Mr. 

 Herbert tried similar experiments during many years, and 

 always with the same result. These cases serve to show on 

 what slight and mysterious causes the lesser or greater 

 fertility of a species sometimes depends. 



The practical experiments of horticulturists, though not 

 made with scientific precision, deserve some notice. It is 

 notorious in how complicated a manner the species of 

 Pelargonium, Fuchsia, Calceolaria, Petunia, Rhododendron, 

 etc., have been crossed, yet many of these hybrids seed 

 freely. For instance, Herbert asserts that a hybrid from 

 Calceolaria integrifolia and plantaginea, species most widely 

 dissimilar in general habit, " reproduces itself as perfectly 

 as if it had been a natural species from the mountains of 

 Chili." I have taken some pains to ascertain the degree of 

 fertility of some of the complex crosses of Rhododendrons, 

 and I am assured that many of them are perfectly fertile. 

 Mr. C. Noble, for instance, : .nforms me that ne raises stocks 



