NOTES ON HYBRIDIZING VEGETABLES. 



425 



stigma has not been previously fertili- 

 zed. 



Hybridization is one of the most delicate 

 operations connected with the vegetable 

 productions of the earth, and requires more 

 nicety and care than most people have 

 patience to bestow upon objects that can do 

 without it ; and this probably is the reason 

 why we are so frequently disappointed in 

 the results of our labors in the raising of 

 seedlings according to our wishes, for even 

 with all the skill and care that can be be- 

 stowed, we frequently perform this opera- 

 tion but very imperfectly ; and hence, when 

 the success of our efforts, (especially with 

 regard to subjects that require a few years 

 to tell the result,) does not keep pace with 

 the ardor of our desire to produce some- 

 thing new, we are apt to abandon the busi- 

 ness in hopeless despair and fancy that 

 the subject of our operations had reached 

 the highest point of development, and that 

 further progress was beyond the power of art. 



It is a very remarkable fact, that all our 

 most valuable culinary vegetables belong 

 to those families that are of easy fecunda- 

 tion, and are very productive in their seed. 

 The BrassiccB and Papilionacea, for in- 

 stance, are exceedingly versatile : an expe- 

 riment of Mr. Knight, the famous horti- 

 culturist, shows how easily the latter fami- 

 ly are changed by hybridization ; an 

 account of which may probably induce 

 others to try the same. A degenerate kind 

 of pea was growing in his garden, which 

 would not grow vigorously even when 

 placed in a rich soil ; being a good subject 

 for experiment, he removed the male organs 

 from a dozen of its immature blossoms ; 

 when the blossoms had reached maturity, he 

 introduced the pollen of a very large and 

 luxuriant gray pea into one half the flowers 

 thus dismembered, but leaving the other 

 half without impregnation. The legumes 



Vol. iv. 30 



of both formed equally, but the seeds of the 

 half unimpregnated withered away without 

 having augmented beyond the size they 

 attained before the blossoms expanded. 

 The seeds of the other half were matured 

 as in the ordinary process of impregnation, 

 and exhibited no perceptible difference 

 from the seeds of the other plants of the 

 same variety ; but when they vegetated in 

 the succeeding spring, the effect of the 

 impregnation was obvious. The plants 

 rose with great luxuriance, indicating in 

 their stems, leaves and fruit, the effects of 

 the artificial impregnation ; and the seeds 

 produced had the dark grey colour of the 

 male variety. By impregnating the flowers 

 of this hybrid with the pollen of other sorts, 

 the colour was again changed, and new va- 

 rieties obtained superior in every respect to 

 the original female parent, and some of 

 them attaining the height of twelve feet. 

 Knight's Marrow, one of the finest sorts 

 grown, is the result of one of these experi- 

 ments. 



The results obtained by the experiments 

 of Knight have been confirmed by others 

 down to the present day, although circum- 

 stances may occur to render them different, 

 such as the disparity of constitutional 

 vigor in the parents, in which case the pre- 

 dominating characters of the weakest are 

 overcome by the strongest. In a great 

 number of trials on various vegetables, I 

 have invariably found this to be the case. 

 On hybridizing Knight's Tall Marrowfat 

 Pea with Bishop's Early Dwarf, the hybrid 

 partakes more of the characteristics of the 

 former than of the latter variety, but when 

 the dwarf was made the female, the pro- 

 duct was less robust than in the former 

 case, though still partaking more of the 

 habit of the strongest. On hybridizing the 

 Early Frame with the purple field pea, I 

 obtained a dull greenish variety, hardier 



