INTERESTING FAILURES 163 



ing the common garden petunia with a variety 

 of tobacco known as Nicotiana Wigandioides 

 rubra. In this cross the petunia pollen was used 

 to fertilize the pistil of the tobacco plant. The 

 seed thus produced was planted in the summer, as 

 soon as it ripened, and possibly two hundred 

 plants were raised. 



When about a foot high the plants were placed 

 in boxes in the greenhouse to keep over winter. 

 They revealed no inclination to bloom, nor did 

 they vary greatly from the parent tobacco plant, 

 except in the matter of growth, which was very 

 uneven, some of the hybrids being two or three 

 times as large as others, and several were inclined 

 to trail. The foliage was somewhat unusual ; yet 

 its resemblance to the tobacco was so great 

 though smaller that a casual observer would have 

 doubted whether the cross had really been made. 



In a word, the characteristics of the tobacco 

 plant seemed to preponderate. 



But toward spring, when the plants were again 

 placed out of doors, they soon began to show the 

 influence of their mixed heritage. Some of them 

 turned crimson, and others pink; yet others 

 remaining green. Moreover, the plants them- 

 selves developed a great diversity of habit. Even 

 during the winter some of them had begun to 

 fall over and show a tendency to trail like vines. 



