MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 189 



tnany hybrids do perfect tbeir seeds ; still an obvious question presents itself, 

 whether we ought not always to consider the parents of such hybrids really 

 to belong to the same species, however dissimilar they may be in external 

 form, whilst the parents of those which do not perfect their seed should be 

 considered distinct. The evidence which is hitherto been adduced militates 

 strongly against the existence of any such law ; though we may hardly allow 

 it to be sufficiently complete and definite to have completely settled the 

 question. Besides, the existence of certain hybrids which never produce 

 ripe seed, and of others which readily produce them there are borne which 

 occasionally, but rarely, do so : and such we find to be the ca.se with the 

 present plants. Professor Henslow examined a great many, of its ovaries id 

 Ihe Bury Gardens, last summer, in all of which the ovules were abortive, 

 and Mr Hodson informed him at the time, that no perfect seeds had 

 been produced ; but since then we have heard from Mr. Turner, (the Gardener 

 in that establishment), that » a few good seeds" have been produced. We 

 shall be anxious to learn whether plants have been raised from these, and it 

 so what are the forms which they assume. May we not ask whether those 

 hybrids which refuse to perfect their seeds in one climate, and under the 

 combination of circumstances to which they are now subjected in he present 

 state of the earth's surface, might not in another climate, and under another 

 combination of circumstances than that at present existing, be rendered 

 productive, and thus be enabled to assume the character of true species It 

 so fresh li-ht mav be thrown upon the remarkable tact with which geology 

 has made us acquainted of a succession ol perfectly distinct races of animals 

 and vegetables at different epochs of the world's existence, each adapted to 

 some peculiar condition of our planet. Such a succession of differences seems 

 to require us to admit that there must either have been a fresh creation, or 

 else such a marked transition between the forms of existing species and those 

 of their offspring, that we are unable to recognise them any longer as speci- 

 fically identical. These speculations are fraught with the deepest interest ; 

 thev serve to impress us with some notions of the infinite distance at which 

 the'human understanding lays behind the preceptions of the Divine wisdom, 

 and to humble anv petty conceit that we might be inclined to entertain ot our 

 own limited powers. If there is a certain difficulty, even in preparing a 

 mere technical description of the works of creation, as they may be seen and 

 handled by us, how much greater must be those difficulties which we have 

 to surmount, when we seek to inquire into those laws by which the past has 

 been altered into the present state of things ; and to trace the means by which 

 organic beings have been framed, altered, and adapted to the several 

 changes to which the earth has been exposed. Here we are trenching upon 

 those paths of wisdom whirl, possibly we shall never in this life be able to 

 nenetrate to any great extent; and of which we must remain content to believe 

 that " God alone understandeth tbe way thereof, and he knoweth the place 

 thereof, for he looketh to the ends of tbe earth, and seeth under the whole 

 heavens." Job, 28th chap. 23d verse. 



NEW AND RARE PLANTS, 

 Recently noticed at various Nurseries and Floral Exhibitions. 



(Continued from page 1G8.) 



ECHICM i;randiflorum. A fine plant having three spikes of its fine blue 

 and purple flowers about five feet high. 



GbnISTA PRAOB4MS. A very pretty plant for the greenhouse, in addition 

 to the Bowers being fragrant. 'they are produced in vast prolusion and of a 

 lively yllow colour. The plant forms a very neat bush, and may be kept 

 from two to six feet high as deaired. 



