280 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
A FEW NOTES ON REPRODUCTION IN HARDY PLANTS BY 
MEANS OF HYBRIDISING SPECIES AND 
CROSSING VARIETIES. 
By Cuarutes Stuart, M.D., Fellow Bot. Soc. Edin., Member and 
formerly President of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, and 
Member of the Scottish Alpine Botanical Club. 
Wuen I had the honour of receiving the kind invitation of the 
President of the Council of the Royal Horticultural Society to attend 
the Conference of Hybridists at Chiswick, and contribute a short com- 
munication, I felt somewhat diffident as to the nature of the information 
I would be expected to give. Upon consideration I came to the con- 
clusion that, as the scientific element would be better elucidated by the 
many distinguished botanists whose names appear on the list than I 
ever could hope to do, it would be more interesting to give a short 
statement of an amateur’s attempt to raise new varieties of hardy plants 
than to enter into a detail of the process of hybridity. Like many 
others, I have had in my attempts many disappointments, perplexities, 
and failures in the results of these operations, but upon the whole there 
has been much pleasure, and some profits. As a rule very careful selec- 
tion is required, as even with all the skill of the hybridist many of his 
seedlings are deficient in some vital point of constitution, however sound 
the parent may be in that respect. A small minority is all that need. be 
expected to be better than the parent in crossing varieties, and besides 
an accurate knowledge of quality is necessary to ensure ‘‘ the survival of 
the fittest.”’ No more delightful satisfaction can be experienced by the 
amateur florist than to watch the development of the beauties of his 
seedlings from which he expects an advancement in quality. It is not in 
every season that the elements are propitious for hybridising operations ; 
and eyen when successful crosses have been effected, do the results 
always satisfy the anticipations of the operator? The month of June, 
1899, has been an ideal one to the seedling raiser. There has been more 
continuous sunshine than for many years. The temperature at the same 
time has been very high, and the weather on the whole has been very 
suitable for crossing hardy plants as well as exotics. The early spring 
was the worst on record, and in consequence the Primulacez, from which 
so much was expected, are a miserable failure as regards seed. With 
this preface I shall now endeavour to give a short statement of work 
carried out during many years of my life. 
Mimvutus Tiariorpes.—More than forty years ago the late Mr. 
Robert Stark, a well-known Edinburgh botanist and florist, brought me a 
plant of Mimulus cuprews, a native of Mexico, saying, “ There is the 
very thing for you. Cross the garden Mimulus with the pollen from 
this plant, and you will get something different from the ordinary forms.”’ 
At the time I had no plant of Mimulus in the garden, but I speedily got 
‘Scarborough Defiance,’ a good Mimulus in its day, and potted it and 
