120 GOOD FROM CROSSING. Chap. XVII. 



Taymouth plant, and except, as we shall see, when fertilised by her 

 own seedling's. For Mr. Munro fertilised eighteen flowers on the self- 

 impotent mother-plant with pollen from these her own self-impotent 

 seedlings, and obtained, remarkable as the fact is, eighteen fine 

 capsules full of excellent seed ! I have met with no case in regard 

 to plants which shows so well as this of P. alata, on what small and 

 mysterious causes complete fertility or complete sterility depends. 



The facts hitherto given relate to the much-lessened or 

 completely destroyed fertility of pure species when impreg- 

 nated with their own pollen, in comparison with their 

 fertility when impregnated by distinct individuals or distinct 

 species ; but closely analogous facts have been observed with 

 hybrids. 



Herbert states 82 that having in flower at the same time nine 

 hybrid Hippeastrums, of complicated origin, descended from 

 several species, he found that " almost every flower touched with 

 " pollen from another cross produced seed abundantly, and those 

 " which were touched with their own pollen either failed entirely, 

 " or formed slowly a pod of inferior size, with fewer seeds." In 

 the ' Horticultural Journal ' he adds that " the admission of the 

 " pollen of another cross-bred Hippeastrum (however complicated 

 " the cross) to any one flower of the number, is almost sure to 

 " cheek the fructification of the others." In a letter written to me 

 in 1839, Dr. Herbert says that he had already tried these experi- 

 ments during five consecutive years, and he subsequently repeated 

 them, with the same invariable result. He was thus led to make an 

 analogous trial on a pure species, namely, on the Hippeastrum aulicum, 

 which he had lately imported from Brazil: this bulb produced 

 four flowers, three of which were fertilised by their own pollen, and 

 the fourth by the pollen of a triple cross between H. bitlbulosum, 

 regince, and vittatum ; the result was, that " the ovaries of the three 

 " first flowers soon ceased to grow, and after a few days perished 

 " entirely : whereas the pod impregnated by the hybrid made 

 " vigorous and rapid progress to maturity, and bore good seed, 

 " which vegetated freely." This is, indeed, as Herbert remarks, 

 "a strange truth," but not so strange as it then appeared. 



As a confirmation of those statements, I may add that Mr. M, 

 Mayes, 83 after much experience in crossing the species of Amaryllis 

 (Hippeastrum), says, r " rveither the species nor the hybrids will, we 

 " are well aware, produce seed so abundantly from their own 

 " pollen as from that of others." So, again, Mr. Bidwell, in New 



82 ' Amaryllidacese,' 1837, p. 371 ; 83 Loudon's ' Gardener's Magazine, 



'Journal of Hort. Soc.,' vol. Li., 1847, vol. xi., 1835, p. 260. 

 p. 19. 



