188, MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of my experiments has been the crossing of Lilium lancifoUum 

 ruhnim with Gloriosn supprba, the seedlings from this hybrid being 

 now in growth. I have also crosses of the difTcrcnt species of the 

 lily genus, Avhich have produced singular variations, one of which 

 is a double flower with two rows of petals. And now that we 

 have passed the bounds heretofore prescribed, and find that not 

 only species but genera, as sometimes classified, can be crossed, 

 where is the limit to hybridization " under domestication," as 

 Mr. Darwin would probably call it? 



That " like begets like," as stated before, all know, but that 

 variations also occur from other causes whose effects are greatly 

 increased by cultivation we also know. Still, the great funda- 

 mental law remains sound in principle. We might give many 

 familiar examples which have come under our own observation 

 where the seed of certain fruits have produced fac-similes of them- 

 selves. As an illustration, we have among our pears — in Rivers' 

 Beurre d'Aremberg, Esperen's Glout-Morceau, Lovett's Louise 

 Bonne of Jersey, Worthington's Bartlett, from a seed dropped in 

 the forest, and the numerous seedlings of the Seckel — cases 

 where the progeny cannot be distinguished from the parent; and 

 these instances of exact reproduction from seed are in the peach 

 and plum quite numerous. All of these must have been produced 

 from self-impregnation without being fertilized by other varieties. 

 So strong is this disposition to adhere to normal characteristics, 

 that we recognize the features or family resemblances of fruits 

 produced by the artificial crossing of varieties. Not only are the 

 outward features of the parents, but the peculiar flavor of the 

 fruit transmitted to future generations. In the seedling pears of 

 Major Esperen, descended from the Passe Colmar, we find the 

 peculiar nut-like aroma of the parent, and in all the seedlings from 

 the Bartlett, raised by Mr. Kichardson, of Dorchester, we recog- 

 nize the musky flavor of the mother variety-. While we accept 

 the principles laid down in tlie general law of reproduction, we 

 acknowledge that no rule is without its variations. Sometimes 

 nature produces offspring of extraordinary proportions from pa- 

 rents of ordinar}^ characteristics. How this happens, whether 

 from peculiar temperature and high cultivation, causing redundant 

 vigor and power at the time of fecundation, or from what cause, 

 we are Jiot yet able to determine. 



