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an opposite tendency, i. e. to the production of dissimilar forms, I could 

 not even have asserted from which parent the seeds actually fell : and 

 I could only decide positively on the parentage when I saw the flower. 

 A word on hybrids. It is asserted by zoologists that a true hybrid or 

 mule, for instance, that between the horse and ass, is sterile as a natural 

 consequence of its hybridity. Without expressing any opinion as to 

 the validity of this conclusion, I may unhesitatingly assert that its 

 converse obtains in plants. No two species of a genus are normally 

 more distinct than Fuchsia coccinea and F. fulgens ; yet a great pro- 

 portion of our most beautiful varieties are obtained from hybrids be- 

 tween these two, the hybrids themselves being equally productive with 

 the parents. It may possibly be suggested that this well-known fact 

 induces the conclusion, that the two parents are but varieties of one 

 species : but if so, how are we to define a species ? — the form, habit, 

 and colour of foliage and inflorescence, being supposed to indicate no 

 higher division than that of variety. I must acknowledge that I in- 

 cline to discard the sterility test of hybrids in plants, and to conclude 

 that nature has herself set up a law of her own, which, when left per- 

 fectly to herself, she invariably enforces. I am not aware that the 

 hybrid oxlip (Primula elaiior) is of usual occurrence in perfectly un- 

 cultivated districts. In woods the primrose, and in old meadows the 

 cowslip and Jacquin's Primula, generally retain their characters with 

 great precision ; and the occurrence of the hybrid in its usual localities 

 of orchards, garden-hedges, &c, seems to me to point to two conclu- 

 sions : first, that the presence of man in this, as in manifold instances 

 besides, interferes with the ordinary course of nature ; and secondly, 

 that the sterility test assumed and partially proved in animals is not 

 available to prove the distinctness of species in plants. 



Edward Newman. 

 9, Devonshire Street, Bishopsgate, 

 June 9th, 1848. 



Note on the British Rubi. By the Rev. Andrew Bloxam, M.A. 



I am glad to see a resumption in the June No. of the 'Phytologist' 

 of Mr. Leighton's valuable notes on the British Rubi, and regret that 

 the whole have not been published earlier, that they might be available 

 to the investigators of this difficult genus during the present season. 

 Having sent a very large supply of specimens of different species of 

 Vol. hi. 2 c 



