Ch. n.] CURIOSITIES. 53 



and the other in Yorkshire, paragraphs stating that it was a 

 most remarkable fact that " the beans this year had all grown 

 on the wrong side." So I thought there must be some founda- 

 tion for so general a statement. Accordingly, I went to my 

 gardener, an old Kentish man, and asked him whether he had 

 heard anything about it, and he answered, " Oh, no, sir, it must 

 be a mistake, for the beans grow on the wrong side only on leap- 

 year." I then asked him how they grew in common years and 

 how on leap-years, but soon found that he knew absolutely 

 nothing of how they grew at any time, but he stuck to his 

 belief. 



After a time I heard from my first informant, who, with many 

 apologies, said that he should not have written to me had ho 

 not heard the statement from several intelligent farmers ; but 

 that he had since spoken again to every one of them, and not 

 one knew in the least what he had himself meant. So that here 

 a belief — if indeed a statement with no definite idea attached to 

 it can be called a belief — had spread over almost the whole of 

 England without any vestige of evidence. 



I have known in the course of my life only three intention- 

 ally falsified statements, and one of these may have been a 

 hoax (and there have been several scientific hoaxes) which, 

 however, took in an American Agricultural Journal. It related 

 to the formation in Holland of a new breed of oxen by the 

 crossing of distinct species of Bos (some of which I happen to 

 know are sterile together), and the author had the impudence 

 to state that he had corresponded with me, and that I had been 

 deeply impressed with the importance of his result. The 

 article was sent to me by the editor of an English Agricultural 

 Journal, asking for my opinion before republishing it. 



A second case was an account of several varieties, raised by 

 the author from several species of Primula, which had spon- 

 taneously yielded a full complement of seed, although the 

 parent plants had been carefully protected from the access of 

 insects. This account was published before I had discovered 

 the meaning of heterostylism, and the whole statement must 

 have been fraudulent, or there was neglect in excluding insects 

 so gross as to be scarcely credible. 



The third case was more curious : Mr. Huth published in his 

 book on ' Consanguineous Marriage ' some long extracts from a 

 Belgian author, who stated that he had interbred rabbits in the 

 closest manner for very many generations, without the least 

 injurious effects. The account was published in a most respect- 

 able Journal, that of the Royal Society of Belgium ; but I 

 could not avoid feeling doubts — I hardly know why, except 



