AND CROSS-BREEDING. 163 



ripe when I pulled them. I counted the seeds in one of these 

 pods, and found them to be about 324, all finely formed, but, 

 I fear, too green to vegetate freely, though some which I sowed 

 appear to be coming up. I cannot vouch for this cross being 

 effected with the shortest stamens, for the stamens with which 

 I effected it were kindly sent to me from another source, as I 

 did not myself possess the male plant; but as I invariably 

 select the shortest for such crosses, my firm belief is that I had 

 so selected these in this instance, and I had a plentiful supply 

 of all lengths to choose from. In the above cases of crossing 

 a small with a large species, I hold firmly by the opinion that 

 but for the use of the short stamens I could not have suc- 

 ceeded. I have few recorded instances of having extended 

 my experiments with them far into other families. I certainly 

 tried the Pelargonium in a plant I had of the beautiful white- 

 flowered Madame Vaucher. I fertilised a bloom with its two 

 shortest stamens, which, however, were very little shorter than 

 the remaining ones ; and, from the three seeds which came of 

 it I raised two fine plants, far more compact and somewhat 

 dwarfer in habit than the parent, having the flowers equally 

 fine, and elegantly thrown up above the plant. But the short 

 stamens of this section of the Geraniaceae are very little shorter 

 than the others, and I therefore cannot rely much on the 

 results as establishing the hypothesis I contended for in my 

 former paper namely, that where all other things are equal, a 

 cross or simple fertilisation with the short stamens tends to 

 dwarf the progeny to my belief in which, however, I still 

 adhere. The instances I have given support this other hypo- 

 thesis, that by their use you may cross a large on a small 

 kindred species a result which, without them, you 'might not 

 effect. 



Crossing with Long Stamens. 



I have made fewer experiments with the long stamens, but I 

 have one before me now no less remarkable, perhaps, for its 

 far-reaching result than any I have alluded to as done with the 

 short stamens. It is a cross which I effected on the tall Rho- 

 dodendron formosnm, fertilised with a scarlet-flowered Indian 

 Azalea, on the nth June last. The seed-pod is finely de- 

 veloped, but I have taken care in this instance to avoid pulling 

 it too early. And I may here notice, once for all, that to 

 obtain the seeds of a cross especially if it be extreme suffi- 

 ciently ripe, you must allow a longer time for it than for the 

 ripening of the normal seeds on the same plant. 



