PROPAGATION OF THE VINE. 197 



of the most noble experiments touching plants to 

 find this out ; for so you may have a great variety of 

 plants and flowers yet unknown. Grafting doth it 

 not ; that mendeth the fruit, or doubleth the flower, 

 but it hath not the power to make a new kind," it 

 has been the constant endeavor of good gardeners to 

 improve the qualities of domestic plants by judicious 

 mixtures of varieties. 



Bradley, we believe, was the first who undertook 

 to produce hybrid plants ; but since his day, it has 

 been attempted by almost every celebrated horticul- 

 turist. 



The limits of hybridization amongst plants have 

 never been thoroughly ascertained, although it is a 

 subject of deep importance. For in the animal king- 

 dom we know that while cross breeding (or intermix- 

 ture of varieties) has been productive of the best 

 results, hybridization, or muling has been successful 

 in but very few instances, at least so far as practical 

 good is concerned. Now whether the different spe- 

 cies of the vine, as vitis vinifera, vitis labrusca, vitis 

 cordifolia, etc. are so far removed from each other 

 as to produce mules by their intermixture, or whe- 

 ther they are varieties and will freely cross-breed, has 

 not yet been fully determined. 



To examine this subject, however, with sufficient 

 fullness to be useful would far exceed our limits. 



