CROSS IMPREGNATION. 267 



nated seeds only that convey the change. In advert- 

 ing to this circumstance in another place we have 

 supposed that the floral and other members of a plant 

 may be changed or improved without the seed itself 

 being affected. But in the case we are now consider- 

 ing, it is evident that some of the seeds are affected 

 by the strange pollen, because the seedlings raised 

 therefrom present the improvement. On this subject 

 we need more information ; for it is not easily under- 

 stood why varieties of herbs, as cauliflowers for in- 

 stance, as before observed, should perpetuate them- 

 selves by seeds, and not those of fruit trees, as the 

 apple and the orange. 



The practicability of cross-impregnation has alarmed 

 scientific botanists ; they fear that their classifications 

 will be thereby broken down into a chaos of non- 

 description, in which all specific and even generic 

 distinction will in time be so amalgamated that iden- 

 tification will be impossible ! Without partaking of 

 these fears it is but right, however, to declare, that 

 as it can serve no purpose of the mere botanist, the 

 practice of impregnation should be confined entirely 

 to the business of the commercial and amateur florist, 

 the kitchen gardener, and more especially the fruit- 

 grower. 



When we look at the varieties of the Hyacmthus 

 orientalis and the Tulipa gesneriana ; or when we 

 consider (what is of much more solid advantage to 

 mankind) the improvement of the austere crab and 

 sloe, the worthless gooseberry and strawberry in their 



