PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 129 



of their two primitive types, when they grow in company with their 

 parents ; and that this return movement manifests itself still more in 

 the succeeding generations." (p. 289.) 



He notes that the same fact was observed by Lecoq in fertile 

 hybrids of Mirabilis, by Naudin in fertile hybrids of Nicotiana^ 

 and by himself in hybrids of Petunia vioLacea X nyctaginae' 

 flora. 



"These facts," he says, "seem to militate in favor of this opinion, that 

 hybrids are not able, contrary to the opinion of Linnaeus, to form new 

 permanent types, or, in a word, new species." (p. 290.) 



He then cites at full length the exception already noted, of 



A egilops speltaeformis : 



". . . which seems to constitute a permanent hybrid race, and appears 

 to comport itself like a veritable species." (p. 290.) 



However, after a careful review of the results of his own ex- 

 periments with Aegilops and those of Fabre, he decided that 

 Aegilops speltaeformis does not behave like a true species, even 

 though it is fertile, that its propagation and permanence remain 

 dependent upon the care of man, and that, abandoned to itself, 

 it is destined to perish. Hence, Godron concludes (p. 296.) : 



"Hybridity remains thus no less one of the most precious means of 

 recognizing what is a species, and of distinguishing it from that which 



IS not." 



Nothing could show more clearly than Godron's small memoir 

 of 1862 the point of view of his time regarding the hybrid ques- 

 tion. Hybrids in many cases, well experimented upon, were seen 

 to "return" gradually to the parental types. In what manner or 

 to what degree, statistically speaking, such "reversion" occurred, 

 was not made the subject of inquiry. Infertility of hybrids of 

 "true species," or fertility of crosses of "varieties," was a deter- 

 mined fact, accepted as relatively certain, and valued as a sort 

 of criterion or means of ascertaining what organisms were "spe- 

 cies," and what were "varieties." 



Naudin. 



With regard to the paper of Naudin (4c), the general conclu- 

 sions of importance for his time, at which he arrived, are as 

 follows, in the language of the Committee of Award of the 

 Academy, which is quoted verbatim to show the point of view in 

 the science then prevailing : 



