Dr Morton on Hybrid Animals and Plants. 285 



vated state, is about forty ; that a few of these have repro- 

 duced, but that the greater part of them are steril.* On the 

 other hand, it is asserted by Shiek, that a multitude of plants 

 produce specifical hybrids in a state of nature.f 



There are innumerable instances, as every one knov«rs, of 

 crosses obtained from plants of different species of the same 

 genera, even when brought from the most distant parts of the 

 world, as the experiments of Kolreuter, Sagaret, and Herbert, 

 abundantly testify. Not only are these hybrids fertile, but 

 in some instances their reproductiveness exceeds that of the 

 parent plants, by multiplying not only from the seed, but from 

 roots, shoots, and suckers. The intermixture is not confined 

 to particular species, but even the most dissimilar can be 

 crossed. We think it unnecessary to give examples when the 

 facts are available to every one ; and therefore, in respect to 

 the blending of species among plants, the reader is particu- 

 larly referred to the admirable essays of the Rev. Mr Herbert 

 and M. Sagaret. J 



We may remark, however, that so abundant are these hy- 

 brids, that Mr Herbert, in order to avoid the difficulty they 

 present to a favourite theory, declares it as his opinion, that 

 botanical species are only a higher and more permanent class 

 of varieties, which should be discarded from the systems, 

 leaving the genera to define the individuality of kind ; or, in 

 other words, to designate those permanent characteristics 

 which have hitherto, in his opinion, been erroneously attri- 

 buted to species. § 



But, in the treatise of M. Sagaret, various instances are 

 given of hybrid plants derived from the mixture of different 

 genera ; thus realizing, in this department of nature, the 

 same facts that we have seen to occur in the several sections 

 of the zoological series. We will offer a single example, — 

 the cross between the horse-radish {Cochlearia raphanus) 



* Researches, &c., i., p. 139. 

 t Brande's Diet, of Science, Art. Hybrid. 



X Herbert. Amaryllidaccae. Introd. — Sagaret. Annales des Sciences Nat., 

 T. viii. 



§ Amaryllidaceae, p. 19. 



