PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 127 



In 1863, Godron (2) reported a series of observations upon 

 the fecundity of hybrids. He investigated the question whether 

 this fecundity, in succeeding generations, bore any relation to 

 the ease with which the original hybridization was effected. From 

 experiments with Verhascum hybrids he came to the conclusion 

 that the fertility of hybrids does not always have any relation to 

 the ease with which the cross is effected in the first instance. 

 From investigations which Godron made upon the cause of steril- 

 ity, he discovered that in some cases deformed and aborted pollen 

 was not, as frequently, the cause, but that perfectly formed pol- 

 len may be inactive. He raised the question whether 



". . . the very great development which the organs of vegetation take 

 on in simple hybrids of Verhascum, the numerous branches and the im- 

 mense quantity of flowers which originate on these branches, would not 

 exhaust the vegetative juices at the expense of the organs of reproduc- 

 tion. Would there not be there a fact which the law of the balance of 

 organs would explain, the force of which one so frequently determines 

 as well in the plant as in the animal kingdom." (2c, p. 172.) 



Godron concludes, in general, that crosses of two races or vari- 

 eties of the same species are characterized by absolute fertility, 

 that the sterility of the simple hybrids is proof that they come 

 from distinct species, and that crossing between two species of 

 different "genera" is impossible. We thus see the trend of God- 

 ron's mind — to establish by experiments in crossing the question 

 of what constitutes a species, a point of view that has entirely 

 disappeared today. At the present time, of course, no especial ac- 

 count is necessarily taken in crossing as to the precise systematic 

 position of the organisms which it is intended to cross. They may 

 be different "varieties," or different "species," or even belong to 

 different so-called "genera." Attention is necessarily directed pri- 

 marily to the nature of the characters which it is desired to in- 

 volve in the cross, the behavior of which it is sought to investi- 

 gate. 



In his brief memoir, "Recherches experimentales sur I'hybridite 

 dans la regne vegetale" (2b), Godron discusses the question of 

 the fecundity of hybrids and the perpetuity or non-perpetuity of 

 their characters. He states that, from crossing experiments of his 

 own on species of the genera Verhascum^ Primula^ Nicotiana^ 

 Digitalis^ Antirrhinum, Linaria, and Aegilops, "when two species, 

 incontestably distinct, are fecundated, the one by the other, they 



