PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 143 



He remarks upon an interesting fact, that the variegations do 

 not appear upon the first leaves of a variegated variety. 



Regarding the heredity of double flowers, he reports no cross- 

 ings, but simply remarks upon cases of double-flowered peach 

 and apple, which came true from the seed. (6, p. 83.) 



Verlot summarizes his views upon hybrids in the following 

 words, which are worth reproducing because they fairly well rep- 

 resent the general knowledge of the time as follows : 



(1) "Hybrid fecundation is not able to produce anything but variations 

 which will be able, it is true, to multiply themselves mechanically, 

 but which will not be fixable, and which consequently cannot be 

 brought to constitute races or varieties, the fertility being limited to 

 a few generations, or disappearing, after a certain time, by the dis- 

 junction of the types. 



(2) "One of the characters of the hybrids is also a great development 

 of the vegetative organs, coincident with less abundant flowering. 

 They are in general intermediate between the species types, but 

 often approach more the father. 



(3) "The hybrid, fertilized by a parent, returns also promptly to the 

 parent. 



(4) "The hybrid, self-fertilized, returns more or less rapidly to the 

 parents. 



(5) "Crossing, that is to say, reciprocal fertilization of varieties of races 

 of the same species, will serve for obtaining new variations, inter- 

 mediate between the parents, very fertile, and which can be fixed 

 more or less rapidly and constitute new varieties or races." (6.) 



20. The Work of the Vilmonns. 



The eminent services of the Vilmorin family for over two hun- 

 dred and thirty years to French agriculture, and particularly 

 through the improvement of the sugar-beet and of wheat, cannot 

 be taken up here. It would not, however, do justice to the mental 

 activities of a long succession of the members of this family, and 

 of the distinguished house of Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie. of Paris, 

 if one omitted to at least mention the fact that, through no less 

 than seven generations of father and son of the family of 

 Vilmorin, there were published by them, in journals and annals 

 of agriculture and horticulture, in proceedings of agricultural and 

 horticultural societies, and in journals of botany and related sub- 

 jects, more than three hundred and sixty articles dealing with 

 plants, from the various standpoints of agriculture, of horticul- 

 ture and floriculture, and of botany. Some fourteen of these were 

 contributed to the Bulletin de la Societe Botanique de France. It 



