CEP AGES. 117 



IV. HYBRIDS. 



A. HYBRIDIZATION. 



(a) Historical. The .vine hybrids, or product of the 

 crossing of two different species, are extremely numerous 

 and varied in the wild state, as will be evidenced in what 

 follows. 



The possibility of crossing two species, giving individuals 

 of an infinite fecundity, was denied for a long time, and 

 brought to light more especially by the work of Darwin. 

 Millardet was the first to attract attention to the complexity 

 and origin of certain forms of American vines, and to deter- 

 mine their hybrid nature ; he insisted on this fact, that the 

 hybrids between species were always fertile, and that the 

 fertility was maintained almost indefinitely, even in most 

 complex combinations. Not only hybrids of two species, 

 but hybrids of three, four, or five species are fertile, and 

 give seeds capable of originating fertile individuals again, 

 a fertility which is maintained indefinitely. 



The vine is certainly one of the plants in which these 

 phenomena are most frequent in the wild state, and the 

 most easy to produce artificially. The natural hybrids are 

 so varied in America that one might classify between 

 different species, series of forms with intermediate characters, 

 which renders the specific elimination very difficult. It is 

 very probable that the cepages derived from the V. Vinifera, 

 fixed and selected by a long series of generations, are 

 partly the result of different crossings. But, in a botanical 

 sense, the crossing between two individuals of the same 

 species yield metis and not hybrids. As very ably proved 

 by Millardet, in a work on the hybridization of vines,* there 

 is no difference in the case of vines between a metis and a 

 hybrid. When crossing takes place between two individuals 

 of the same species, or two individuals of different species, 

 the hybrids or metis resulting have an equal fecundity. 



The creation of new varieties of vines by sowing or by 

 hybridization has been tried for a very long time. Vibert, 

 Robert Moreau, Courtiller, . Beeson, etc., in France, have 

 made numerous seedlings with the object of improving 

 table grapes. The sowing of vines has been practised for 



*A. Millardet, Essais sur 1'hybridization de la vigne. Revue des Pyrenees^ 1891. 



