Polytechnic Association Proceedings. 969 



and numerous .other aualagous facts, that some unknown law is 

 here dimly indicated to us. The remarks of Mr. Henry, on crossing 

 with long stamens, contain a suggestion interesting to those desiring 

 to hasten the floAvering condition of plants, or to make them flower 

 more freely, which is, to cross violently, i. e., where the allies are 

 not too near akin, particularly in the case of mongrels; for nature, 

 ere she gives up, ever makes a violent efibrt to reproduce. By so 

 doing, the plant will remain longer in bloom, because most mon- 

 grels, especially those among herbaceous or soft-wooded plants, to 

 which these remarks apply, are impotent to produce seed, or nearly 

 so, and in such cases the blooms remain longer upon the plant. 



Lastly^ as to fruits, the lecturer entertained the belief that we 

 are on the eve of a revolution — that by judicious and persevering 

 crossing, we may not only transfer the delicious aroma of one to 

 another, and communicate hardier and more abundant beariug 

 habits to the hybrid progeny; but further, especially in stone fruits, 

 such as peaches, plums, apricots, &c., we may, in addition to these 

 advantages, increase the size of the fruits and diminish the size of 

 the stones, and among vines get rid or greatly diminish the number 

 of seeds. And all this would result from th'at law of nature by 

 which she not merely strains her effort to reproduce (to which, 

 however, she assigns a limit), but extends it when these have failed, 

 to make provision for her creatures' wants. 



In conclusion, the lecturer said that while his aim had been to 

 achieve something useful and practical, rather to test the theories 

 which Mr. Darwin and others— especially the Continental savans — 

 have been so engrossed with, he could not refrain from alluding to 

 the results and conclusions which some of them have come to on 

 prosecuting a series of crossing operations, tending to show that 

 such crosses do and must eventuate in sterility. M. Naudin seems, 

 like "Wichura, to have limited his experiments chiefly to herbaceous 

 or soft-wooded plants; among such, especially among calceorlarias, 

 the speaker has found himself brought to the terminus of a bitter 

 and hopeless sterility. He remembered one instance where he had 

 reached a perfect monster for size in that tribe, but, except in that 

 particular, it had no desirable property. Determined, however, to 

 improve it by crossing, he found, on trial, he could make nothing 

 of it, and on examination he discovered that its stigma was a hol- 

 low tube, and its antlers were hard masses, containing not a particle 

 of pollen. Man may run into such mistakes, but he cannot thence 

 conclude that unviolated. nature does so. Yet the speaker had 



