46 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



existence is reduced to its lowest terms ; for it must be borne 

 in mind that, even in the garden, plants must fight severely 

 for a chance to live, and even then only the very best can 

 persist, or are even allowed to try. 



I am sure that this list of hybrids is much more meagre 

 than most catalogues and trade-lists would have us believe, 

 but I am sure that it is approximately near the truth. It is, of 

 course, equivalent to saying that most of the so-called hybrid 

 fruits and vegetables are myths. There is everywhere a 

 misconception of what a hybrid is, and how it comes to 

 exist ; and yet perhaps because of this indefinite knowledge, 

 there is a wide-spread feeling that a hybrid is necessarily 

 good, while the presumption is directly the opposite. The 

 identity of a hybrid in the popular mind rests entirely upon 

 some superficial character, and proceeds upon the assumption 

 that it is necessarily intermediate between the parents. 

 Hence we find one of our popular authors asserting that, 

 because the kohl rabi bears its thickened portion midway of 

 its stem, it is evidently a hybrid between the cabbage and 

 turnip, which bear respectively the thickened parts at the 

 opposite extremities of the stem. And then there are those 

 who confound the word hybrid with high-bred, and who 

 build attractive castles upon the unconscious error. And 

 thus is confusion confounded. 



But, before leaving this subject of hybridization, I must 

 speak of the old yet common notion that there is some 

 peculiar influence exerted by each sex in the parentage of 

 hybrids ; for I shall thereby not only call your attention to 

 what I believe to be an error, but shall also find the oppor- 

 t unity to still further illustrate the entanglements of hybrid- 

 ization. It was held by certain early observers, of whom 

 the great Linnaeus was one, that the female parent determines 

 the constitution of the hybrid, while the male parent gives 

 the external attributes, as form, size and color. The ac- 

 cumulated experience of nearly a century and a half appears 

 to contradict this proposition, and Focke, who has recently 

 gone over the whole ground, positively declares that it is 

 untrue. There are instances, to be sure, in which this old 

 idea is affirmed, but there are others in which it is contra- 

 dicted. The truth appears to be this, — that the parent of 



