276 ACCOUNT OF SOME MULE PLANTS. 



nature, is probably much smaller than that now found in the catalogues 

 of botanical writers : and it is also wholly impossible to distinguish such 

 natural varieties from originally distinct species, by any peculiarities in 

 their external character. In the present imperfect and limited state 

 of our information, it is therefore, in many cases, difficult to decide 

 whether plants are or are not mules ; it being still questionable whether 

 mere natural varieties, after they have through successive generations 

 assumed very widely different forms and characters, are found to breed 

 with each other as readily as other varieties of the same species, of 

 similar habits ; and that real mule plants have, in some instances, and 

 under certain circumstances, produced offspring, (mules like themselves, 

 I suspect,) cannot, I believe, be questioned. 



The principal object of the present communication is to describe two 

 new kinds of mule plants, which have recently come within my observa- 

 tion. One of these presents the singularity of being, though certainly a 

 mule, in some degree deserving the attention of the fruit-gardener ; and 

 the other affords me the means of pointing out a new species of fruit, in 

 the Morello cherry, to the improvement of which I wish particularly to 

 invite the attention of the experimental gardener. 



The results of many experiments upon the different kinds of straw- 

 berries which are cultivated in our gardens, led me, some years ago, to 

 conclude that we possess three distinct species of that genus : the wood 

 or Alpine, the scarlet in many states of variation, and the hautbois. I 

 failed to obtain mule plants between the Alpine and the scarlet, and 

 hautbois, which I inferred to be of distinct species ; because they did not, 

 under favourable circumstances, breed at all with each other. But I 

 have subsequently seen, in the possession of my friend Mr. Williams of 

 Pitmaston, mule plants obtained from the seeds both of the scarlet and 

 hautbois, and the pollen of the Alpine strawberry. One of these, which 

 sprang from the seed of the hautbois, presents in its foliage and habit the 

 character of its female parent, without any perceptible variation. It 

 blossoms very freely, and its blossoms set well ; but the growth of the 

 fruit subsequently remains very nearly stationary during the whole period 

 in which the hautbois strawberry grows and ripens ; after which it swells 

 and acquires maturity. It is then rich and high-flavoured, but of less 

 size than the hautbois, and without seeds. Mr. Williams, however, 

 informed me that he had once obtained a single seed, which afforded a 

 mule plant in every respect similar to its parent. I have sent a few 

 plants of each kind to our garden, and I believe the varieties will be 

 thought to deserve culture by those who are admirers of the flavour of 



