Oy VARIETIES, RACES, SUB-SPECIES, AND SPECIES. 91 



2. The difference between a hybrid and either of its parents 

 is greater than that which exists between an individual and its 

 parents when both belong to tiie same species : we must not 

 however conclude that a iiybrid is a mean between its two 

 parents, or, in other words, that it resembles the one just as much 

 as it does the other. 



3. Few hybrids, especially among animals, can be reproduced 

 by generation in the same way as individuals of the same species 

 can. 



4. Those hybrids which are not sterile are more inclined to 

 form alliances with one another, and even with their parents, 

 than the latter are with each other ; so that hybrids are more 

 liable in a few generations to lose the cliaracters derived from 

 their parents, than are individuals of one and the same species. 



5. However intimate the two forms of its parents may be 

 in the hybrid, forms which may be said rather to be merged in 

 one another than to be placed in juxta-position, still there are 

 hybrids and circumstances where the two forms are separated, 

 the one from tlie other, in the same individual. There is, for 

 example, a hybrid of Cytisiis laburnum and Cytisus purpureas, 

 which occasionally has branches, some of which bear the flowers 

 of its male, and others those of its female parent. It is clear 

 then that the two forms in a hybrid are not destroyed inasmuch 

 as they sometimes appear separately. 



M. Sageret gives us a similar example of a hybrid sprung from 

 a female Chinese melon, and in all probability a male Market 

 melon ; of two branches exactly opposite eacli other in the 

 hybrid, one bore notlnng but the latter melon, whilst the other 

 brancli bore a cross between botli melons. 



Although as a general rule hybrids have but little tendency 

 to reproduce themselves by generation, or, in other words, are 

 apt to die out in the ordinary circumstances in whicli organized 

 beings are placed, still there are certain hybrids of which this is 

 not true, and which propagate themselves like other things. We 

 do not therefore reject, as contrary to the laws of nature, M. 

 Sageret's opinion that the Colza, looked upon by most botanists 

 as a species, is a hybrid of the cabbage {Brassica oleracea) a.id 

 turnip {Brassica napus) ; he was led to this opinion by com- 

 paring the Colza witli a hybrid he obtained from tlie last two 

 plants. 



Althougli he may be blamed for not having carried his re- 

 searches on this point further, and proved the hybrid to be wliat 

 botanists call a species, it cannot be denied that the above experi- 

 ment is a new proof of tlie great service of methodical experi- 

 mental inquiry in the higher questions of natural history. We 

 too side with M. Sageret on the point on which he and Mr. 



II 2 



