243 Production of Hybrids. 



admits of no doubt, and it is a pity that the fact does not 

 receive more general attention. 



Now it is well known that all seeds, however carefully 

 secured from admixture with others, if they have any " kind" 

 of their own, do not, when planted, "yield fruit" according 

 to it : or rather, it would be more proper to say, that they 

 do thus '' yield fruit ;" but that the " kind" defies all human 

 calculation. The accidental and unavoidable impregnation 

 of the favorite squash, or melon, or cucumber of this man's 

 garden, by his neighbor's inferior kinds, is sufficiently annoy- 

 ing, to say the least. It comes closely up to the mark of 

 vexation, as most cultivators have proved, to have an excel- 

 lent sowing of sweet corn exhibiting at the harvest some two 

 or three quite undesirable varieties. And yet here we have 

 the exhibition of the very means by which all improvements 

 have been introduced. 



Sometimes an accidental mixture atones for much previous 

 annoyance, when a choice hybrid, which has distinctive 

 characteristics of its own, is the consequence. Some of the 

 freaks of nature, not to speak of fruits only, have brought 

 us the brilliant displays of tulips which are now ornament- 

 ing our gardens, of verbenas, camellias, azaleas, (fcc, a list 

 which is continually enriched by new treasures, even as we 

 have just now by our side, lately introduced, the heliotrope 

 Souvenir de Leige, which promises a fragrant yellow bloom. 

 It is to be observed, however, that every chance variation 

 from the original, a monstrosity in culture, does not consti- 

 tute a hybrid, for it may have been produced by accidental 

 conditions which cannot be renewed, and from the eff'ects of 

 which it may, in a single generation, return to its allegiance 

 to primordial peculiarities. 



Besides inferring, that not "a little is yet to be hoped for" 

 from this capacity of improvement, we urge another reason 

 for not allowing this thought a place : it is probably true in 

 nature as it is in man's own experience, that there is no such 

 thing as a stand still : there must be culture and care, in- 

 ducing progress and improvement ; or general neglect in- 

 ducing deterioration. We presume it is an admitted fact, 



