314 General Notices. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General JS'otices. 



ViLMORIN, ON THE FORMATION OF RaCES, VARIETIES, AND HYBRIDS 



I.-* Vegetables, — (Communicated by A. Henfrey, F. R, S. &c.) — M. Vil- 

 morin is well known to be more than ordinarily competent to speak upon this 

 nuestion, both from practical acquaintance with the subject, and study of the 

 theoretical question. His observations and experiments form a continuation 

 of those of his father, and date from half a century back. In the Revue 

 Horticole he has explained his views, and they are well deserving of the 

 attention both of the scientific man and of the practical cultivator. The 

 following fragments, selected from his essay, and accompanied with a few 

 notes, were published by M. Alphonse Decandolle, in the BibKothique Uni- 

 verselle de Geneve, for August, 1852 : — " Races : " — t. e., modifications of the 

 species perpetuated by seed. — " If we reflect on what is occurring in a seed 

 just sown, and about to give birth to a new individual, we may regard it as 

 v%ttracted — as regards the characters which the nascent plant is to possess — 

 by two distinct and opposite forces, (the word force is only used here in a 

 comparative sense, and to render more clear the effects which we have to 

 describe. It will be readily imagined that the cause — probably very com- 

 plex — which produces these, cannot be classed with a/orce capable of direc- 

 tion and measurement, such as is understood by geometricians). These 

 two forces, which act in contrary directions, and from the equilibrium of 

 which results the fixity of the species, may be tlius conceived : the first, or 

 centripetal force, is the result of the law of resemblance hetioeen children and 

 parents, or atavism ; the result of its action is to restrain within the limits 

 rissigned to the species the aberrations produced by the other force." The 

 author here takes the word atavism in a wider sense than is commonly 

 adopted, and departs from the sense indicated by the Latin word, alavi, 

 forefathers. The term atavism is applied to the resemblance of individuals 

 — not to their parents in the first degree, but to ancestors of more distant 

 connection, [Decandolle : Physiologie VigHale, vol. ii. 737). However, M. 

 Vilmorin soon returns to the common meaning of the word (Alph. Decan- 

 dolle). The second or centrifugal force, resulting from tlie law of individual 

 differences, or of idiosyna'asy, causes each of the individuals composing a 

 Bpecies, supposing them even born from a single individual or couple, to 

 present difficulties which constitute its peculiar physiognomy, and produce 

 that infinite vanety in vnity M'hich characterizes the works of the Creator. 

 For the sake of simplicity we have just supposed atavism to constitute a 

 single force ; but when we reflect on it, we see that it presents rather a 

 collection of forces acting pretty nearly in the same direction, and is com- 

 posed of the influence or individual attraction of all the ancestors. Now, 

 to facilitate the comprehension of this force, w^e must first consider abstract- 

 edly the form of resemblance to the mass of ancestors, which may be re- 

 garded as the attraction of the type of the species, and for which we shall 



