NOTES ON HYBRIDIZING VEGETABLES. 



BY R. B. LEUCHARS. BALTIMORE. 



In continuation of my paper on the im- 

 provement of culinary vegetables, it may 

 be useful here to make a few remarks upon 

 the changes that have been effected upon 

 certain plants by hybridization, as well as 

 the peculiarities which appertain to the 

 union or amalgamation of properties and 

 characters so entirely opposite to each other, 

 as we very often find them, in species of 

 the same family, and which, by hybridiza- 

 tion and reproduction assume new forms 

 and characters. The elements of the pa- 

 rent plants would appear to be decomposed, 

 and converted into new substances. 



Whether the changes thus effected in the 

 principles and characters of vegetables by 

 culture and hybridization, be the result of 

 a law in the economy of vegetation, or 

 merely the temporary effects of certain cau- 

 ses, known or unknown, I am unable to 

 say. Some of these changes are so regu- 

 lar, and so easily effected, that we might 

 very reasonably suppose them the result of 

 a fixed law in the economy of vegetable 

 life, yet there are many others which as 

 readily revert to their original types, as 

 soon as the producing causes have been 

 withdrawn or overcome. The pea, for in- 

 stance, (of which I shall speak more fully,) 

 speedily degenerates, unless cultivated with 

 care, and new varieties produced; and in 

 other plants, we find the most unvarying 

 regularity under all circumstances ; — their 

 juices, and other habits regular and uniform, 

 — some sweet, others bitter, some acid and 

 others tasteless ; — nor can these principles 

 be altered by any culture or contrivance of 

 ours to affect that end. For example: the 

 wild sorrel is still the same, under any con- 



dition in which it is placed, and even if 

 nourished entirely with sugar and water, it 

 will nevertheless secrete its acid, and be 

 the same sour vegetable it was while grow- 

 ing in a ditch by the-way side. Some 

 plants will absorb only those salts which 

 are peculiar to themselves, and will die if 

 forced to receive into their system others 

 that would modify or ameliorate their pecu- 

 liar taste. If a plant of mint, or of the 

 common raspberry, be placed in a solution 

 of various salts, they will each absorb the 

 salts peculiar to themselves, while the 

 others, although likewise in solution, will 

 be rejected. 



On some plants the effects of mere cul- 

 ture alone have been unavailing in impro- 

 ving on their primitive type. The wild 

 carrot is not affected by it, and the dande- 

 lion retains its acridity in spite of high 

 cultivation. There are other causes, how- 

 ever, besides mere culture, that contribute 

 to the improvement and change of garden 

 vegetables; the greatest of these are arti- 

 ficial; and, what is generally termed acci- 

 dental hybridization, and from attentively 

 studying the subject, I have come to the 

 conclusion that this cau*e alone has contri- 

 buted more to the multiplication of varie- 

 ties than any other. The progress of wild 

 plants from their primitive state to that in 

 which we find them in our gardens, is by 

 cultivation alone, comparatively slow ; but 

 where the properties of one are mingled 

 with those of another in the same genus, 

 the product is sometimes astonishingly 

 different. The order Solanece presents 

 some striking examples of this ; so, also, 

 does Legumimsea and many others. In- 



