138 Plant-Breeding 



mind rests entirely on some superficial character, and 

 proceeds upon the assumption that it is necessarily inter- 

 mediate between the parents. Hence, we find one of our 

 popular authors asserting that, because the kohl-rabi bears 

 its thickened part midway of its stem, it is evidently 

 a hybrid between the cabbage and turnip, which bear 

 respectively the thickened parts at the opposite extrem- 

 ities of the stem! And then there are those who con- 

 found the word hybrid with high-bred, and who build 

 attractive castles upon the unconscious error. And thus 

 is confusion confounded! 



Influence of sex on hybrids. But, before leaving this 

 subject of hybridization, we must speak of the old yet 

 common notion that there is some peculiar influence 

 exerted by each sex in the parentage of hybrids. It 

 was held by certain early observers, of whom the great 

 Linnaeus was one, that the female parent determines the 

 constitution of the hybrid, while the male parent gives 

 the external attributes, as form, size, and color. The 

 accumulated experience of nearly a century and a half 

 appears to contradict this proposition, and Focke, who has 

 gone over the whole ground, positively declares that it is un- 

 true. There are instances, to be sure, in which this old idea 

 is affirmed, but there are others in which it is contradicted. 

 It is usually impossible to determine beforehand which 

 parent is the stronger. It is certain that strength does not 

 lie in size, neither in the high development of any character. 

 It appears to be more particularly associated with what 

 we call fixity or stability of character, or the tendency 

 towards invariability. 



" This has been well illustrated in my own experiments 



