NOTES ON HYBRIDIZING VEGETABLES. 



423 



deed, the most of our culinary vegetables, 

 and many of our finest fruits and flowers 

 have in this way been obtained. The im- 

 pregnation of the parents may have been 

 unknown to the growers, as well as the 

 method in which they obtained the pollen 

 of the fecundating kind, or exercised their 

 functions in the operation. In some plants 

 we have the principles and properties of 

 two very distinct species united and in- 

 creased in a very remarkable manner. 

 There seems to be an alteration of the laws 

 of secretion and structure entirely beyond 

 the power of the analyst to understand. 

 Here we cannot fail to admire the wisdom 

 of nature, and the perfection she gives to 

 the instruments she employs. Notwith- 

 standing the multiplicity of the operations 

 continually going on in plants at the same 

 time, and the variety of different and even 

 opposite substances formed out of the same 

 ingredients, and almost at the same time, 

 every thing goes on without the slightest 

 disorder or confusion — no two operations 

 clash, — there is no discord, no irregularity, 

 no disturbance in the performance of their 

 respective functions, — every thing is ac- 

 complished that has been designed, and 

 every thing is ready for its intended pur- 

 pose. 



But although the creation of a new va- 

 riety, and the form under which it appears, 

 be essentially due to the plant itself, and its 

 inherent powers of modification and repro- 

 duction, art is not without its influence up- 

 on it, when properly exercised, as is abun- 

 dantly exemplified in the artificial hybridi- 

 zation of different species of the same 

 genera, and even different varieties of the 

 same species ; and as all species and per- 

 manent varieties, evidently owe their exist- 

 ence to the seed formed by fecundation, 

 and this being not only the most common, 

 but the most natural system of reproduc- 



tion ; to this system, therefore, my present 

 remarks will chiefly relate. 



It is a remarkable fact that the most 

 valuable varieties of our culinary vegeta- 

 bles have resulted from accidental hybridi- 

 zation ; this operation having been per- 

 formed by the wind or by the ever-busy 

 family of insects which fly about from 

 flower to flower, conveying the pollen of one 

 to the stigma of another ; and, on examin- 

 ing the subject attentively, it will be seen 

 how slight is the chance of this operation 

 being performed by these means, so as to 

 give rise to distinct sorts, yet such undoubt- 

 edly is sometimes the case. How often do 

 we observe in a plot of cabbages or field of 

 turnips, a dozen or more distinct varieties 

 produced solely by this cause, although the 

 seed had been obtained pure, from one va- 

 riety only. 



The greater the difference between the 

 species of the same family, growing to- 

 gether and flowering at the same time, the 

 more likely will there be a distinction in 

 the plants produced by the seeds. In fact, 

 we increase the distinction of varieties, 

 just in proportion as the species impregna- 

 ted be more or less distinct from the spe- 

 cies from which the fecundating pollen is 

 obtained. It must not be supposed, how- 

 ever, that a combination of the qualities of 

 two distinct species into one variety, raises 

 that variety higher in the scale of organi- 

 zation than the species from which it 

 sprung, as some would have us erroneous- 

 ly to believe, and argue "that the simplest 

 and 7nost primitive type, give birth to the 

 type next above it ; that this again produces 

 the next higher by similar means, and so on 

 to the very highest.''''* This reasoning is 

 proved to be sufficiently absurd by the sim- 

 ple fact, that hybrids, so produced, are fre- 



*Thia principle ofprogreaaive deveJopemeut is stroi g'y con- 

 tended for in ■ book entitled ''The Vestiges of Creuliou," 

 and advocated I))' many Others. 



