AMERICAN HOME GARDEN. 77 



ization it commonly happens that the fruit loses size, though 

 it does not entirely perish. Of this the white Corinth or Kis- 

 mishi grape, from which the seedless Sultana raisins are made, 

 furnishes an interesting illustration. Its flowers are perfect or 

 bisexual, yet, from some cause as yet undiscovered, it never 

 produces seed, and, although its clusters are of fair size, the 

 fruit upon them is not much larger than common currants ; but, 

 as we might expect in connection with this defective reproduc- 

 tion in the ordinary channel, the luxuriance and vigor of its 

 plant-growth is prodigious. 



INTERMIXTURE. 



From this sexual character in flowers arises the possibility 

 and danger of intermixture of kinds. This, however, is limited 

 to species that are kindred to one another, which is generally 

 indicated by a certain similarity in the appearance or construc- 

 tion of their flowers. Thus the varieties of cabbage, turnip, 

 rape, and probably radish, all bearing cruciform flowers, read- 

 ily intermix, when blossoming at the same time in close prox- 

 imity, as in small private gardens, or whenever planted care- 

 lessly near to each other for seeding. Cucumbers, melons, 

 pumpkins, &c., are equally liable to intermixture in similar 

 circumstances. The product of seeds so raised becomes a mon- 

 grel and usually worthless combination ; but cabbages and 

 beets, or cucumbers and onions, &c., &c., never intermix, there 

 being no congruity or affiliation between them. Certain plants 

 also, which seem to possess this congruity, are not known to 

 intermix, as the apple and pear, the currant and gooseberry, 

 &c. The reason of this it does not seem easy to find. 



In many flowers the organs of fertility are comparatively ob- 

 scure or hidden by their peculiar arrangement ; yet intermix- 

 ture occurs readily among them, as in the various kinds of peas, 

 and bush-beans, many new varieties of which have originated 

 incidentally through careless planting or the sowing of min- 

 gled seed. 



Sometimes the intermixture of kinds, whether by natural or 

 artificial fertilization, is imperfect, and the new variety contin- 

 ues for years to be unsettled in character ; or, instead of one 



