251 



XLIV. OBSERVATIONS ON HYBRIDS. 



[Read before the HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, February 6, 1821.] 



MUCH difference of opinion appears to exist between my friend the 

 Hon. William Herbert and myself, relatively to the production of hybrid 

 plants ; he supposing that many originally distinct species are capable of 

 breeding together, without producing mules (that is, without producing 

 plants incapable of affording offspring) ; and I considering the fact of two 

 supposed species having bred together, without producing mules, to be 

 evidence of the original specific identity of the two. Our difference of 

 opinion is, however, I believe, apparently much greater than it really is : 

 for I readily concede to Mr. Herbert, that great numbers, perhaps more 

 than half, of the species enumerated by botanical writers, may be made 

 to breed together, with greater or less degrees of facility : but upon what 

 sufficient evidence the originally specific diversity of these rests, I have 

 never been able to obtain anything like satisfactory information ; and I 

 cannot by any means admit that plants ought to be considered of origi- 

 nally distinct species, merely because they happen to be found to have 

 assumed somewhat different forms or colours in an uncultivated state. 

 The genus Prunus contains the P. Armeniaca, P. Cerasus, P. domestica, 

 P. insititia, P. spinosa, P. sibirica, and many others. Of these, I feel 

 perfectly confident that no art will ever obtain offspring (not being 

 mules) between the Prunus Armeniaca, P. Cerasus, and P. domestica : 

 but I do not entertain much doubt of being able to obtain an endless 

 variety of perfect offspring between the P. domestica, P. insititia, and 

 P. spinosa ; and still less doubt of obtaining an abundant variety of 

 offspring from the P. Armeniaca and P. sibirica. The former, the 

 common apricot*, is found, according to M. Regnier (for a translation 

 of whose account we are indebted to Mr. Salisbury) (, in a wild state in 

 the Oases of Africa. It is there a rich and sweet fruit, of a yellow 

 colour. The fruit of the P. sibirica, seeds of which came to me last year 

 from Dr. Fischer of Gorenki, is, on the contrary, I understand, black, 

 very acid, and of small size : but nevertheless, if these apparently distinct 



* The early period at which the apricot unfolds its flowers leads me to believe it to be a 

 native of a cold climate : and I suspect the French word abricot, the English apricock, and the 

 African Berrikokka, to have been alike derived from the Latin word prsecocia, which the 

 Romans (there is every reason to be believe) pronounced praikokia, and which was the term 

 applied to early varieties of peaches, which probably included the apricot. The Greeks also 

 wrote the Latia word, as I suppose the Romans to have pronounced it, ITpa/co/cia. Hardouin's 

 edition of Pliny, lib. 15. sec. xi. 



f See Horticultural Transactions, Vol. III. Appendix, page 23. 



