316 General Notices. 



force of atavism, exercised across very divergent influences, will have lost 

 a great portion of its power ; or if I may again have recourse to that com- 

 parison, will act in a broken, instead of a straight and continuous line. It 

 is only after having attained this result, which I shall call, if I may use the 

 word, " destroying the polarity of the plant" [affoler is the word used), "that 

 we should commence the pursuit of the variations approaching the form 

 which we wish to obtain — a pursuit which will be facilitated by the enor- 

 mously increased number of variations produced by the foregoing proceed- 

 inws. We must then avoid variations which may present themselves, with 

 the same care as we sought them at first, in order to give to the race we are 

 endeavoring to form constancy of habit, which will be so much the easier to 

 obtain, that the atavism — that incessant cause of destruction of the races of 

 human creation — will have been weakened, by the intermediate links through 

 which we have forced it, to exercise its influence. It will be seen, then, 

 that in our view there are two very distinct phases in the pursuit of varieties 

 — phases during which the courses to be followed are diametrically opposite. 

 Up to the present time the first has been completely abandoned to what are 

 called sports of nature ; and tlie care of horticulturists has been limited to 

 propagating and fixing accidental varieties. Perhaps it will appear prema- 

 ture to advance that this first phase may be subjected, equally with the sec- 

 ond, to the influence of man. Nevertheless, the facts which have led me to 

 this opinion are now sufficiently numerous to allow me a well-grounded 

 hope of being able, before long, to show examples of the application of this 

 method. For some time past there has been an appearance of proceeding 

 in this direction, in the recommendation of artificial fertilization, for impress- 

 inw on a type previously invariable, a first modification which may tend to a 

 large number of others ; but this plan has been applied most erroneously 

 hitherto rather to varieties than to species. It seems requisite here to enter 

 into certain special details, in order to render comprehensible the idea I 

 entertain of the part which hybridity may play in the creation of varieties. 

 The number of plants really hybrids, or results of the crossed fertilization 

 of two distinct species, is exceedingly limited ; and even their existence is 

 denied by some physiologists who refuse to their muks the power of repro- 

 ducing by seeds. At the same time, certain sets of varieties in actual cul- 

 tivation have, in my opinion, an evident hybrid origin. We may imagine 

 in this case that the hybridation has only acted in the direction of destroying 

 the polarity " [affollment), " and that the varieties to which they may give 

 birth will only constitute distinct races, tlirough a certain number of gener- 

 ations. As to the custom of fertilization crossed between vaiictics, they enter 

 into the same mode of action, considerably increasing the extent of variation 

 in the varieties already not very stable by tliemselves. It is to this class that 

 belong the enormous quantity of hybrids with which florists fill their cata- 

 logues. Multiplied by divisions, their varieties form for them the source of 

 interesting operations; and their excessive variability then becomes an ad- 

 vantage, since each sowing of their seeds produces new forms, calculated 

 to satisfy the incessant desire for novelties of this kind manifested by 

 amateurs. — ( Gar d. Jour.) 



