Chap. XaJJ. CAUSES OF VARIABILITY. 253 



Gartner declares, 34 and his experience is of the highest value on 

 such a point, that, when he crossed native plants which had not 

 been cultivated, he never once saw in the offspring any new character ; 

 but that from the odd manner in which the characters derived from 

 the parents were combined, they sometimes appeared as if new. 

 When, on the other hand, he crossed cultivated plants, he admits 

 that new characters occasionally appeared, but he is strongly 

 inclined to attribute their appearance to ordinary variability, not 

 in any way to the cross. An opposite conclusion, however, appears 

 to me the more probable. According to Kblreuter, hybrids in the 

 genus Mirabilis vary almost infinitely, and he describes new and 

 singular characters in the form of the seeds, in the colour of the 

 anthers, in the cotyledons being of immense size, in new and highly 

 peculiar odours, in the flowers expanding early in the season, and 

 in their closing at night. With respect to one lot of these hybrids, 

 he remarks that they presented characters exactly the reverse of 

 what might have been expected from their parentage. 35 



Prof. Lecoq 36 speaks strongly to the same effect in regard to this 

 same genus, and asserts that many of the hybrids from Mirabilis 

 jaiapa and mulUflora might easily be mistaken for distinct species, 

 and adds that they differed in a greater degree than the other 

 species of the genus, from M. jaiapa. Herbert, also, has described 37 

 certain hybrid Ehododendrons as being " as unlike all others in 

 " foliage, as if they had been a separate species." The common 

 experience of floriculturists proves that the crossing and recrossing 

 of distinct but allied plants, such as the species of Petunia, Calceo- 

 laria, Fuchsia, Verbena, &c, induces excessive variability; hence 

 the appearance of quite new characters is probable. M. Carriere 38 

 has lately discussed this subject : he states that Erythrina cristagalli 

 had been multiplied by seed for many years, but had not yielded 

 any varieties : it was then crossed with the allied E. herbacea, and 

 " the resistance was now overcome, and varieties were produced 

 " with flowers of extremely different size, form, and colour." 



Frorn the general and apparently well-founded belief that the 

 crossing of distinct species, besides commingling their characters, 

 adds greatly to their variability, it has probably arisen that some 

 botanists have gone so far as to maintain 39 that, when a genus 

 includes only a single species, this when cultivated never varies. 

 The proposition made so broadly cannot be admitted; but it is 

 probably true that the variability of monotypic genera when culti- 



34 ' Bastarderzeugung,' s. 249, 255, 38 Abstracted in ' Gard. Chronicle,' 

 295. 1860, p. 1081. 



35 'Nova Acta, St. Petersburg,' 39 This was the opinion of the elder 

 1794, p. 378; 1795, pp. 307, 313, De Candolle. as quoted in ' Die. Class. 

 316 ; 1787, p. 407. d'Hist. Nat.,' torn. viii. p. 405. Puvis, 



36 ' De la Fecondation,' 1862, p. in his work, ' De la Degeneration,' 

 311. 1837, p. 37, has discussed this same 



3; « Amaryllidaceae,' 1837, p. 362. point. 



