Vaimatiun of Plants under Cultivation. 49 



to their system by the application of this pollen. Even last 

 summer, the blooms were imperfect. 



We have passed the stage when the hybridiser was deemed 

 a sacrilegious man, who had dared to run counter to the decrees 

 of nature. We have discovered that Nature hei'self is a great 

 hybridiser, and that many of the plants we have long been familiar 

 with are true natural hybrids. Those who are engaged on the 

 work now aie but carrying on what has for ages been done with 

 less certainty and fewer opportunities by the insects of the air, 

 and by the winds of heaven. 



The subject thus imperfectly brought before you is full of 

 interest to any careful observer, and also full of value to the 

 pleasure and profit of the human race. It is complicated by many 

 things we can never fully fathom. We cannot tell what effect the 

 soil in which they grow ; the air they receive ; the water they 

 absorb, may have upon these plants. We know that the higher 

 the plants grow up the mountains the more brightly coloured are 

 they than their fellows which are natives of the more lowland hills. 

 We know that the colours of some flowers can be changed by some 

 ingredient in the soil in which they grow, or by a solution of 

 some chemicals in the water applied to their roots. But we can- 

 not understand why some others are unaffected under similar 

 conditions. Nor can we understand why the florist's Tulip 

 remains for so long a self, or almost self, coloured flower before 

 it assumes the markings which delight the fancier, and which 

 made it the subject of one of the maddest manias of history. 

 Why do not the bulbs of the same age assume their new garment 

 at the same time? NVhy do some individuals '• break" in a few 

 years while others remain *•' breeders " for many ? Problems 

 such as these await the inquirer at every turn in the search into 

 the mysteries of the laws which control these variations. Many 

 of them are subject to our control, but many others seem as the 

 " wind that bloweth whei-e it listeth." and teach us the old lesson 

 of our ignorance. We are still gathering pebbles by the great 

 sea of knowledge which stretches out to infinity. Yet among 

 them we shall find some which are precious, and which show us 

 that many things await the observer and experimenter in such 

 branches as this. 



