739 



he afterwards abandonded that idea ;* and the latter plant,— Geum 

 intermedium, — 1 believed, in common with many botanists, to be a 

 hybrid between Geum rivale and G. urbanum.f 



And first with regard to the Epilobium. Seeds were easily obtained 

 by fertilizing the stigma of Epilobium tetragonum with the pollen of 

 E. montanum ; and the hybrid plants produced were intermediate, in 

 all their characters, between the parent species. They were not, 

 however, identical with Epilobium roseum, as I had suspected they 

 might be, but distinguished from it by a slightly four-notched stigma, 

 and a habit rather more like E. tetragonum. So far, therefore, as 

 regards the first object of my experiment, I had an answer in the 

 negative4 



However, having now a new race of hybrids, I was anxious to ob- 

 serve the behaviour of these plants as regards the permanence of their 

 form and characters. I saved s^eds from the original hybrids, and 

 sowed them. The second race was undistinguishable from the first. 

 The seeds of these I again saved and sowed, and still no difference 

 could be detected ; and so on to four turns, when, being satisfied of the 

 reproductive powers of these hybrids, and the permanence of the form, 

 I discontinued the experiment. To this day, however, hybrids of the 

 same characters with the original ones continue to come up in ray 

 garden. 



I may further state that the original hybrid plants were all of them 

 almost exactly alike, one or two only out of a very large number hav- 

 ing a slightly stronger resemblance to one of the parent plants. So 

 with the subsequent generation : they remained like each other, and 

 like the 'first race, with an occasional slight exception, as at the first. 



The hybrid Geums were formed by fertilizing the stigmas of Geum 

 rivale by the pollen of G. urbanum. This experiment was performed 



tetragonum) " impregnated by the pollen of montanum ? If so, it unites the external 

 form of the father with the fructification or internal structure of the mother, accord- 

 ing to the Linnsean hypothesis, as completely as could be wished." 



* Eng. Fl. vol. ii. p. 215, 1828. 



t Smith's Eng. Fl. vol. ii. p. 431 ; Hook. Brit. Fl. 3rd edit. p. 256, 1835 ; Hook. 

 & Arnott, Brit. Fl. p. 118, 1850. 



X These hybrid plants I designated, in my herbarium, Epilobium montano-tetra- 

 gonum. I afterwards reversed the experiment, by fertilizing E. montanum with pol- 

 len of E. tetragonum ; and the progeny from this crossing I called E. tetragono-mon- 

 tauum. Not the slightest difference could be detected between the two races, thus 

 obtained, in support of the Linnsean hypothesis above referred to, in the note quoted 

 from Eng. Bot. t. 693. 



