.160 ARTIFICIAL FERTILISATION 



there are seldom such intermediates among the long ones. 

 My reason for the use of these short, intermediate, and long 

 stamens is intelligible enough. If I wish to cross a large on a 

 small species, the smallest-grained pollen being in the short 

 stamens, I take the pollen of these stamens of the large plant 

 as best fitted to pass down the tubes through the stigma to 

 fertilise the ovules of the smaller species, and so effect the 

 cross on it ; and so, cceteris paribus, with respect to the other 

 forms. 



I shall restrict the instances I am now to cite to the last few 

 years, noticing first 



Cases of Crossing with Short Stamens. 



The first cross I shall notice is one already alluded to viz., 

 Rhododendron virgatum with my own hybrid Rhododendron B 

 (R. ciliatnm crossed on R. Edgeworthii) ; and as this cross 

 is memorable and instructive in several points of view, it is 

 proper to give you its history. On April 20, 1864, I find from 

 my note-book that " I took off all expanded blooms of R. 

 virgatum and removed the stamens from all unopened ones on 

 the plant, there being none left for self-fertilisation ; done in 

 fine sunshine west wind with three short anthers of B " 

 z.e., the hybrid male, being the identical cross which produced 

 Veitch's Rhododendron, " Princess Alice." Of this cross I 

 ripened four capsules of seed, which I sowed on January 28, 

 1865, and with some failures, got up by December that year seven 

 nice healthy plants, all of which, however, save one, I lost by 

 an accident. That one plant is now setting for bloom not at 

 the axils, as the female parent (R. virgatum) generally shows, 

 but at the extremities of the shoots, as in the male (R. ciliatum 

 crossed by R. Edgeworthii). But, as I have had occasion to 

 observe already, the type in all else is more that of the female 

 than of the male parent. By the mother's side this plant is a 

 hybrid, by the father's it is a mongrel, and yet it has a fair share 

 of vigour in it. As in its sexual aspect so in its height, it is 

 that of the mother. A few cilia are noticeable on its leaves, but 

 it has none of the tomentose or dense hairiness of the male 

 parent ; and so in this also it partakes most of the glabrous 

 foliage of the mother. Again, this doubly-crossed plant, and 

 the crosses which produced it all extreme show how such 

 crossing may hasten on the reproductive or flowering state. 

 Never in all my experience have I seen or heard of Rhododen- 

 drons offering bloom at two years of age. I have Rhododen- 

 drons now fifteen years from seed which have never shown the 



