HYBRIDIZING. 



21 



appears to be produced by continual cross- 

 ing, producing an imperfect state of the 

 floral organs, — all being sacrificed to the 

 size and colour of the flower. So with the 

 strawberry; nearly all the hybrid kinds 

 have had all other floral parts sacrificed to 

 the size of the receptacle ; and this mon- 

 strous development requires a strong rich 

 soil to support it, — light, frothy soils, al- 

 ways rendering such strawberries unpro- 

 ductive. So of the Hautbois Strawberry, 

 which, for a Wood Strawberry, has a large 

 receptacle. In Herefordshire, in England, 

 it produces enormous crops ; but in other 

 parts of England is almost worthless. Yet 

 in this variety there is a tendency, in what 

 are called the male flowers, to produce fruit, 

 as they frequently have imperfect fruit but 

 perfect seeds. The Pine Strawberry, grown 

 in the neighborhood of Bath, Eng., is very 



productive and fine ; but the same plant, 

 sent to other parts, are scarcely worth 

 o-rowing; and many similar instances can 

 be named in this country. 



This sexual organ theory is, I find, being 

 applied to other fruits. A nurseryman here 

 has been applied to for fruit bearing rasp- 

 berries ; and the White Antwerps he sells 

 are said to be among the most prolific and 

 finest to be obtained anywhere ; yet in his 

 own nursery he never had the pleasure of 

 seeing a quart of perfect fruit from them, — 

 the soil and situation being unsuitable. I 

 think that strawberry growers will much 

 further advance horticultural science by 

 finding out by experiment and analyses the 

 most suitable soil or manure for the plants, 

 than in seeking their fruitfulness by such 

 doubtful means as impregnation. Sknex. 



New- York, June, 1848. 



REMARKS ON HYBRIDIZING PLANTS. 



[From the London Hort. Magazine] 



The operation of hybridizing plants con- 

 sists in fertilizing the stigma of the flower 

 of one plant with the pollen of another, of 

 different though allied characters. The 

 effect of this, when the cross fecundation is 

 actually effected, is to originate a new form, 

 usually possessing properties and charac- 

 ters intermediate between its parents. Such 

 a production is a mule or hybrid plant, and 

 is to be regarded as a very difl^erent thing 

 from what is understood as a variety. 



In a practical point of view, this power 

 of producing hybrid plants is one of the 

 most important means which man possesses 

 of modifying the vegetable races, and 

 adapting them to his purposes. To it we 

 owe some, indeed many, of our most beau- 

 tiful garden flowers, as well as the most 

 valuable of our fruits and vegetables, many 

 of which have been so far improved — we 

 use this word in a relative sense only — that 

 further amelioration or improvement seems 



hardly to be expected. Very little has been 

 done in altering the characters and proper- 

 ties of our timber trees by this process, but 

 there appears no reason to suppose that 

 they would not admit of as much being 

 effected as in the other classes of plants. 

 Indeed, there is reason to believe that any 

 property that may be possessed by plants of 

 any class, or to Avhich there is any tendency 

 either inherent or manifest, may be modi- 

 fied to an almost unlimited extent by perse- 

 verance and assiduity in hybridizing. 



It would not be desirable to enumerate 

 all the changes which have been or may 

 be effected by this process ; it will be suffi- 

 cient to notice a few of the most prominent. 

 Among flowers the most important qualities 

 which can be impressed on the different 

 races are greater hardiness of constitution, 

 precocity or tardiness of flowering, the com- 

 munication of odor where it is not possess- 

 ed, increase in the size, alterations in the 



