REMARKS ON HYBRIDISING. 



113 



REMARKS ON HYBRIDISING PLANTS- 



BY PROF. LINDLEV, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. 



[We reprint the following interesting re- 

 marks on originating new varieties of plants 

 by means of hybridising, from the pen of 

 Dr. LiNDLEY, in answer to various queries 

 on this subject, which we have received 

 from correspondents in various parts of the 

 country. The subject is, in this country, 

 perhaps most interesting in its application 

 to the production of new varieties of fruit ; 

 since, by its means the skilful cultivator 

 may, almost with certainty, produce a new 

 variety combining novel and desirable qua- 

 lities — as for example, the flavor of the 

 Seckel pear with the size of the Bartlett, 

 and other like combinations, which ages 

 might not give us by the accidental improve- 

 ment resulting from sowing seeds at ran- 

 dom. 



We shall return to this subject soon, with 

 some remarks of our own.— Ed.] 



Among the manj^ contrivances by which 

 man has succeeded in converting the wild 

 productions of untamed nature into bodies 

 better adapted to his artificial wants, nothing 

 has produced more past advantage, or pro- 

 mises more future profit, than hybridising. 

 We shall not refer in this place to what has 

 been done in the animal kingdom, but con- 

 fine the attention of the reader to its efiects 

 Upon vegetation. 



The practice is regarded as one of very 

 recent date ; and so it is, as an artificial pro- 

 cess, applied by rule to definite purposes. 

 But he must be a bold man who dares to 

 assign to it historical limits ; on the contrary 

 it may be supposed to date from the Crea- 

 tion — or rather, it is in a manner certain 

 that it does. The presence of winds or in- 

 sects must necessarily, from the beginning, 

 have produced effects upon plants, which 

 resulted in hybrid productions. 



Hybridising is effected by applying to the 

 stigma of one plant the pollen of some 

 Vol. II. 15 



other ; the end of which is the generation 

 of a form, participating more or less in the 

 attributes of both its parents. Nature, in 

 her wildest state, opposes no insurmounta- 

 ble difficulties in the way of this operation. 

 Insects, bepowdered with the pollen of orte 

 plant, plunge into the recesses of another, 

 and thus efiectually destroy the purity of 

 races. The natural brush on the body of a 

 bee will convey the subtil powder, as well 

 as the trim camel's hair pencil of the arti- 

 ficial operator. 



It is contended, indeed, that this cannot 

 be ; because if it were so, all species must, 

 in the lapse of ages, be confounded in one 

 inextricable chaos. But, in the first place, 

 this supposition is of little force, till it is 

 shown that that which is easily done artifi- 

 cially, cannot possibly take place naturally ; 

 and secondly, it must be proved that the 

 wild races of plants actually do remain in 

 all their original purity. No botanist would, 

 we suspect, venture upon such an argument 

 as that. The genera Salix, Eubus, Rosa, 

 and Carex, would make the stoutest advo- 

 cate of original purity pause before he' 

 threw himself into the lists. Nobody, in 

 fact, can possibly doubt that Avild hj-brids 

 exist, are common, and are, perhaps, much 

 more frequent than we think for. We will 

 not stop to quote notorious and. proved in- 

 stances of this, because we regard the fact 

 as being beyond all dispute. 



Let us not, however, infer from this that 

 no natural obstacles are opposed to the in- 

 discriminate mixture of races in plants ; on 

 the contrary, there are barriers which can- 

 not be overleaped. By some mysterious 

 agency, there is a complete bar to all inter- 

 mixture of plants not closely related to each 

 other. An Elm may certainly mix with an 

 Elm, and perhaps with a Nettle-tree, but 

 not with an Oak. A Peach may, perad- 

 venture, cross a Plum, but not an Apple. 

 These obstacles are, doubtless, connected 

 with the molecular constitution of plants, 

 the precise nature of which we have no 

 means of examining. Another obstacle 



