HYBRIDIZING AND CROSSING. 77 



To convince ns that hybridization has actually taken 

 place, we need to see more than one of the prominent 

 characteristics of both parents mixed in the offspring. 



Again, if the offspring should appear to be only a 

 reproduction of the mother plant without variation, it 

 would not prove that the hybridizing process had not 

 been effectual. But it would only show that there was 

 a predominant power in the mother plant to reproduce 

 itself, and the influence which the artificial fertilizing 

 had produced was entirely hidden in the present genera- 

 tion of seedlings, but in the next generation it might 

 show itself distinctly. 



A good test to determine whether a plant is a true 

 hybrid, or a mixture of two species, is to plant a quan- 

 tity of its seeds ; a portion of the seedlings thus produced 

 will be pretty sure to show more prominently than others 

 some of the characteristics of one or the other of the 

 parents; or, in other words, the mixture will again 

 separate, and a part will return each to its original 

 progenitor. 



There are, at the present time, a very large number 

 Ox varieties in cultivation, claimed to be, and probably 

 some are, true hybrids, either between native species, or 

 between some of these and the foreign ( Vitis vinifera) 

 varieties, but those which show the least signs of hy- 

 bridity, like the Eogers' Hybrids, have thus far proved 

 to be the most valuable, and while this may be rather 

 discouraging to some of our hybridists, still there is a 

 chance that further trials may yield better results. 



The world cares but little how a thing is produced, 

 or where it is from, but is only interested in the results. 

 Our greatest danger, as cultivators, lies in the fact that 

 partial success will often direct our thoughts into a 

 region of false theories, from which it is difficult to 

 extricate ourselves without unlearning all that which we 

 have previously learned. 



