90 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
NOTES ON SOME EXPERIMENTS IN HYBRIDISATION AND 
CROSS-BREEDING. 
By Mr. C. CHAMBERLAIN Hurst, F.L.S. 
Durine the past few years the question of inheritance has been of 
increasing interest to students of Evolution as well as to the practical 
breeder. 
Since the foundation-stone of the subject was laid by Charles Darwin 
in the standard work, ‘‘ Animals and Plants under Domestication,’’ our 
knowledge of one part of it has considerably increased. Thanks to recent 
improvements in the mechanism of the microscope, and the consequent 
facilities for studying the inner processes of fertilisation, the tendency has 
been for students of heredity to give most of their attention to the mys- 
teries of the germ-cells and the part they play in sexual reproduction. 
This is, undoubtedly, very desirable and very necessary ; yet, on the other 
hand, there seems to be a danger that in so doing we may lose sight of 
the broad facts of inheritance as manifested to us in the outward charac- 
ters of plants and animals. And it seems to me that, notwithstanding 
the great body of facts already brought together by Darwin in his magni- 
ficent work, there is still a wide field open to the student in making 
further experiments and in gathering fresh facts. 
The aim of this paper is to record, as concisely as possible, some 
experiments in the hybridisation and cross-breeding of plants, carried out 
by myself and others, which seem to bear directly upon the problems 
of inheritance and variation. 
THe INHERITANCE OF VARIETAL CHARACTERS. 
From the horticultural point of view, the inheritance or non-inherit- 
ance of varietal characters is most important. If a useful or orna- 
mental variety be capable of transmitting its good qualities to its 
offspring, then its own natural value becomes greatly enhanced, and in 
the course of a few generations a more or less permanent race may be 
established. Most breeders have a strong impression that varieties 
possess the power of transmitting their qualities to their offspring, and 
in practice they take care to breed only from the best which suit their 
purpose, in the hope that the improvement may be maintained, and, if 
possible, increased. But, having observed many exceptions to that 
general rule, in the Orchidee, I have thought it worth while to consider 
the question somewhat in detail. Take, first of all, a natural variety 
fertilised with its own pollen; in this case, if a varietal character be 
hereditary at all, it should, @ priori, be especially so when fertilised with 
its own pollen. Paphiopedilum Lawrenceanum Hyeanum is a colour 
form of the type, in which all the purple and brown colouring matter is 
suppressed, leaving the whole plant shades of green and white. Mr. 
Norman Cookson, of Wylam-on-Tyne, fertilised this variety with its own 
pollen, and a batch of seedlings was raised. 
