AND CROSS-BREEDING. 153 



seeds spring quite suddenly and unexpectedly. Seize upon all 

 such seasons for difficult crosses. As to the time of the day, 

 you may operate best perhaps from 10 A.M. till 6 P.M. 



Appearances if the Cross has succeeded. We shall suppose the 

 cross now performed. Your next anxiety will naturally be to 

 find out whether it has taken. Almost all experimenters have 

 noticed that soon I would say from six to ten days an alter- 

 ation is observed on the stigma and style. You will find the 

 viscid matter on the former dried up, while the latter has begun 

 to shrivel. You will naturally conclude that it is all right, and 

 that the fertilising pollen has now passed down into the ovary ; 

 and in some cases you may be right. But these appearances 

 are deceptive, especially if you find the style maintain an erect 

 position. And singularly, as I now write, I find, on glancing 

 at the 'Gardeners' Chronicle' of the ipth October 1867, that 

 this state of matters had been observed last summer by the 

 learned editor of that publication, and described in his leading 

 article of that day. He there observes : " We have ourselves, 

 in following some experiments on cross-breeding this season, 

 noticed that the stigma becomes changed withered, almost 

 immediately after contact with the pollen, even if no perfect 

 seeds be produced." Now that gentleman is quite right ; but 

 I did not note the withering effect to be just so immediate as 

 he had observed it, though it might have been so in the Epilo- 

 bium tribe, to which his experiments refer. Another effect I 

 particularly noted last summer was, that in attempting to cross 

 an Indian Azalea with a Rhododendron (which, however, in 

 that instance failed), not only did the stigma and style decay, 

 but the divisions of the calyx took on a purplish tint, and a 

 honeyed secretion continued long to exude from the disc. 

 Another still more misleading condition often arises, as is 

 noticed in the same leading article of the ' Chronicle : ' " The 

 ovary will swell, the fruit will set, in some cases without any 

 contact with the pollen at all, though of course no embryo is 

 produced." Wichura has noticed the like result ; and the fol- 

 lowing degrees of failure noted by him have so often occurred 

 in my own experience, that I cannot do better than cite them 

 in his own words, from the Rev. Mr Berkeley's translation 

 already alluded to, which I only alter according to my own 

 experience : ist, The organs submitted to hybridisation (the 

 stigma and style) soon wither, but do not in all cases soon 

 fall off. 2d, The ovaries swell and ripen, but do not contain 

 a trace of seed. 3d, The ovaries may seem filled (I say may 

 seem partially filled), having in some instances the small pro- 

 tuberant swelling outside as if seeds were within, and yet no 



