102 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER 



each genus thai he possesses the materials with 

 which he must work, and he considers in what 

 manner he can blend tliem lo the best advaniage, 

 looking to the several gills in which each excels, 

 whether of hardiness lo endure our seasons, of 

 brilliancy in its colors, of delicacy in its mark- 

 ings, of fragrance or stature, or profusion of blos- 

 som ; and he may anticipaie, with tolerable 

 accuracy, the probal)le aspect of ihe intermediate 

 plant which he is permitted to create ; for that term 

 may be fiizurativeiy applied lo the iniroduciion into 

 the world of a natural Ibrm which has probably 

 never before existed in it. In constitution the 

 mixed offspring appears to partake of the habits 

 of both parents ; that is to say, it will be less har- 

 dy than the one of its parents which bears the 

 greatest exposure, and not so delicate as the other ; 

 but, if one of the parents is quite hardy, and the 

 other not quite able to support our winters, the 

 probability is, that the offspring will support them, 

 though it may suflfer from a very unusual depres- 

 sion of Ihe thermometer, or excess of moisture, 

 which would not destroy its hardier parent." 



In the many successful attempts made by Mr. 

 Knight to improve the quality of fruit trees by 

 raising new varieties, his method was to obtain 

 crossbreds by fertilizing the stigma of one variety 

 of known habits with the pollen of another also of 

 known habits. But, in doing this, his experi- 

 ments were not conducted at random, and without 

 due consideration ; on the contrary, we learn li'otn 

 himself that he was very careful in selecting the 

 parents from which his crossbreds were obtained. 

 He (bund that the general opinion, that the off- 

 spring of crossbred plants as well as crossbred ani- 

 mals usually presents great irregularity of charac- 

 ter, is unfounded ; and that if a male of perma- 

 nent habits, and of course not crossbred, be 

 selected, that will completely overrule the disposi- 

 tion to sport, ''■ the permanent character always 

 controlling and prevailing over the variable." He 

 tells us that he usually propagated from the seeds 

 of such varieties as are sufficiently hardy to bear 

 and ripen their fruit, even in unfavorable seasons 

 and situations, without the protection of a wall, 

 because, in many experiments made with a view 

 to ascertaining the comparative influence of the 

 male and female on their offspring, he had ob- 

 served in fruits, with few exceptions, a strong preva- 

 lence of the constitution and habits of the female 

 parent. Unfortunately, however, this is precisely 

 the reverse of the result at which Mr. Herbert 

 has arrived in the very great number of experi- 

 menls performed by himself on that subject, he 

 believing that the male parent generally infiucnces 

 the character of the foliage, and the female that 

 of the flowers (^maryllidaceai, p. 348, 377) ; and 

 although it does appear to me that, in the majority 

 of cases, Mr. Herbert's opinion is the more correct 

 of the two, yet I fear there is too little certainty in 

 the results of hybridizing to justify the establish- 

 ment of any axiom upon the subject. 



This power of muling, properly so called, is 

 confined within very narrow limits, and can hardly 

 be said to exist at all between species of diflTerent 

 genera, unless under that name are comprehended 

 some of the spurious creations of inconsiderate 

 botanists. There are, indeed, many cases of 

 species very closely allied to each other which it 

 is either impossible to mule, or so difficult that no 

 nne has yet succeeded in effecting it. Mr. Knight 



never could make the Morello breed with the 

 common cherrj-. I have in vain endeavored to 

 mule the gooseberry and currant, and we do not 

 possess any yarden production known to have 

 been produced between the apple and the pear, or 

 the blackberry and the raspberry, any of which 

 might have been expected to intermix. As to 

 mules obtained between plants of distinct genera, 

 we have, no doubt, upon record, some experi- 

 ments said to have been performed successfully in 

 crossing a thorn-apple with tobacco, the pea with 

 the bean, the cabbage with the horse-radish, and 

 soon; but Mr. Herbert regards these cases, and 

 I think with great reason, as apocryphal, and not 

 to be relied on ; the fact being, as he truly slates, 

 " that in this country, where the passion for hor- 

 ticulture is great, and the attempts to produce 

 hybrid inlermixtures have been very extensive 

 during the last fifteen years, not one truly bigeneric 

 mule has been seen." 



On the other hand, cross breeding will take 

 place quite as readily among plants as among 

 animals, and it is difficult to estimate the alteration 

 which this process has really produced, although 

 unperceived by us, in the amelioration and altera- 

 tion of long-cultivated plants. We cannot rea- 

 sonably doubt that a process so simpip as that of 

 dusting the stigma of one plant with the pollen of 

 another, which must be continually happening In 

 our gardens, either through the agency of insects 

 or the currents in the air, and which, where it 

 takes place between two varieties allied to each 

 other, must necessarily produce a cross, — we can- 

 not suppose, ( say, that this occurs in our crowded 

 gardens and orchards at that time only when we 

 perform it artificially. 



The operation itself, although so simple, con- 

 sisting in nothing more than applying the pollen 

 of one plant to the stigma of another, neverthe- 

 less requires to be guarded by some precautions. 

 In the first place, it is requisite that the flower 

 whose stigma is to be fertilized should be deprived 

 of its own anthers before they burst, otherwise 

 Ihe stigma will be self-impregnated, and although 

 superfcetation is not, by any means, impossible, 

 yet it is not very likely to occur. Then, again, 

 the application of the stranger pollen should be 

 made at the time when the stigma is covered with 

 its natural mucus ; if not, the pollen will not act, 

 either in consequence of ihe necessary lubrifica- 

 lion of itself being withheld, from the stigma 

 being too young, or because the sligma, from 

 age, has lost its power of receiving the action of 

 the pollen. Neither should the stigma be in any 

 way injured after fertilization has apparently taken 

 place. The art of fertilization consists in the 

 emission, by the pollen, of certain tubes of mis- 

 croscopical tenuity, which pass down the style, 

 and eventually reach the j'oung seed, with which 

 they come in contact ; and, un'ess this contact 

 takes place, fertilization misses. Now the trans- 

 mission of Ihe pollen tubes from the stigma to the 

 ovule, through the solid style, is often very slow, 

 sometimes occupying as much as a month or six 

 weeks, as in the mieitletoe. 



Those who occupy themselves in attempts at 

 improving the quality of cultivated plants should 

 be aware of this: namely, that the real quality of 

 either the fruit or the flower of a seedling cannot 

 be ascertained when they are first produced ; for 

 it is onlv as plants advance in age that Ihe secre- 



