ARTIFICIAL HYBRIDIZATION. 457 



1180. If to a stigma pollen from two species is applied simul- 

 taneously, only that will be potent which has the greatest sexual 

 affinity, and no apparent effect will be produced by the other. 



1181. With some remarkable exceptions, hybrids share the 

 general characters of their parents, and are intermediate between 

 them. It sometimes happens that part of the offspring of a 

 single union will have certain characters, while the rest, 1 raised 

 from the same seed-pod, will possess others. 



1 This and certain other points referred to in the text are well illustrated 

 by the case of Parkman's Lily, which is here described nearly in full : 



" My first attempt was to combine the two superb Japanese lilies, L. specio- 

 sum (lancifolium) and L. auratum. The former was used as the female 

 parent. Four or five varieties of it, varying from pure white to deep red, were 

 brought forward in pots under glass. This was necessary, because L. speciosum 

 does not ripen its seed in the open air in the climate of New England. When 

 the flowers were on the point of opening, the anthers were carefully removed 

 from the expanding buds by means of forceps. As the pollen was entirely 

 unripe, and as pains were taken to leave not a single anther in any of the 

 flowers, self-impregnation was impossible. The pollen of L. auratum was 

 then applied to the pistils as soon as they were in condition to receive it. 

 Impregnation took place in most cases. The seed-pods swelled, and promised 

 an ample crop of seed; but the experiment was spoiled by the bad management 

 of the man in charge of the greenhouse, in consequence of which the pods were 

 attacked by mildew. 



" In the next year I repeated the attempt, with the same precautions. 

 This time the seed was successfully ripened. Being sown immediately, a por- 

 tion of it germinated in the following spring, and the rest a year later. In 

 regard to this seed , two points were noticeable : first, it was scanty, the pods 

 (though looking well) being in great part filled with abortive seed, or mere 

 chaff ; and, next, such good seed as there was differed in appearance from the 

 seed of the same lily fertilized by the pollen of its own species. The latter is 

 smooth, whereas the hybrid seed was rough and wrinkled. About fifty young 

 seedlings resulted from it; and their appearance was very encouraging, because 

 the stems of nearly all were mottled in a manner characteristic of L. auratum, 

 but not of L. speciosum. Here, then, was a plain indication of the influence 

 of the male parent. The infant bulbs were pricked out into a cold-frame, and 

 left there three or four years, when, having reached the size of a pigeon's egg, 

 they were planted in a bed for blooming. This was in 1869. Towards mid- 

 summer, one of the young hybrids showed a large flower-bud much like that 

 of its male parent, L. auratum. The rest, about fifty in all, showed no buds 

 until some time after ; and when the buds at length appeared, they were pre- 

 cisely like those of the female parent, L. speciosum. The first bud opened on 

 the 7th of August, and proved a magnificent flower, nine and a half inches in 

 diameter, resembling L. auratum in fragrance and form, and the most bril- 

 liant varieties of L. speciosum in color. In the following year it measured 

 nearly twelve inches from tip to tip of the extended petals ; and in England it 

 has since reached fourteen inches. ... In this one instance the experiment 

 had been a great success; but of the remaining fifty hybrids, not one produced 

 a flower in the least distinguishable from that of the pure L. speciosum. Th 



