540 



HYBRIDIZATION OF THE CAMELLIA JAPONICA, 



ral endowments ; and if pledges ought ever 

 to be demanded of politicians, then farmers 

 should not be slow to require them of their 



every sound means of increasing the intel- 

 ligence of this great bulwark of the coun- 

 try's safety and prosperity — the cultivators 



representatives, for legislation favorable to I of the soil. 



THE HYBRIDIZATION OF THE CAaiELLIA JAPONICA AT^B ITS VARIETIBSj 



WITH THE TREATMENT OF THE OFFSPRING. 



[By Marshal P. Wilder, Esq , President of tlie Massacliusetts Horticultural Society.] 



[We copy the following highly interesting 

 article from the 2d number of the Trans- 

 actio7is of the Massachcsetts Horticultural 

 Society. Ed.] 



The following remarks have been pre- 

 pared in compliance with a request of the 

 Committee of Publication, to furnish an ar- 

 ticle on the cross-breeding of plants ; but 

 more particularly to give some account of 

 the method of practice, and the results of 

 my experiments in the production of hybrid 

 varieties from this beautiful family of Flora. 



In treating of this branch of vegetable 

 physiology, I do not expect to promulgate 

 any new theory in explanation of the pro- 

 cess by which nature carries on this part 

 of her secret handiwork, or of the laws and 

 principles upon which an All-wise Provi- 

 dence has based the mysterious system of 

 the re-production of the races of beings and 

 plants. 



My earliest experiments were pursued 

 more as a matter of recreation than as a 

 scientific study, and although in many in- 

 stances quite satisfactory, still it is to be 

 regretted, that from causes which could not 

 be controlled, by one busily engaged in 

 other avocations, some of them need far- 

 ther confirmation. I shall not, therefore, 

 pretend to lay down any fixed rules, from 

 which there can be no departure under any 

 circumstances or treatment, but simply re- 

 fer to such as are well established in my 



own mind, and which, it is believed, will 

 by similar process produce like results. For 

 the success attendant on these efforts, I am 

 largely indebted to the researches of the 

 late Eev. Mr. Herbert, of SpofForth, Eng- 

 land, published many years since, in an 

 article on " Crosses and Hybrid Intermix- 

 tures." (See his Amaryllidacese.) 



The Eeverend gentleman to whom I 

 have alluded, in his investigations into the 

 structure and functions of vegetables, dis- 

 covered in his experiments with the Ca- 

 mellia, that, " si7igle flowers, or those raised 

 from single ones,'''' were the best as breed- 

 ers, or seed bearers ; and that, for the pro- 

 duction of fine double flowers, it was im- 

 portant that the pollen, used for impregna- 

 tion, should be borne on a petaloid anther, 

 thus becoming petaloid pollen ; and fur- 

 ther, that this was still better, if from a 

 double flower. Another precaution was to 

 prevent the plant making any new wood, 

 by cutting out the young shoots as fast as 

 they appeared, thereby forcing as much nu- 

 triment as possible to the newly formed 

 germ. 



Practicing on these suggestions, and be- 

 lieving that every change effected by cross- 

 fertilization is a remove from the normal 

 form, and therefore more easily susceptible 

 of continued mutations, I have preferred 

 hybrids for bearing the seed ; and in the 

 selection of the flower to be impregnated, I 



