wither, the ovules in all the specimens we examined turned brown 
and withered also ; whereas, in both the parent species (as in other fer- 
tile plants) the ovules begin to swell as soon as the stigma withers. 
Popvtar AND GeocrapaicaL Notice. A regret has sometimes 
been expressed at the production of hybrid plants, because they intro- 
duce a certain degree of confusion and difficulty into our technical de- 
scriptions and systematic arrangements. But surely the searcher after 
truth, the philosophical investigato™of the works of nature, must 
greatly rejoice at every fresh and striking result (however embarrassing 
for the moment) which has been obtained by the judicious application 
of a direct experiment. The more our experiments are multiplied, 
and the more precautions we take in securing the accuracy of our re- 
sults, the greater will be our chance of detecting those physiological 
law swhich regulate the variations and restrictions in forms in different 
species. One remarkable result, observable in the production of hy- 
brid plants, is the uniform manner in which several of them refuse to 
perfect their seed ; and if this character were constant in them all, we 
should possess an excellent law for distinguishing hybrids from true 
species. But it is now asserted that many hybrids do perfect their 
seeds ; still an obvious question presents itself, whether we ought not 
always to consider the parents of such hybrids really to belong to the 
same species, however dissimilar they may be in external form, whilst 
the parents of those which do not perfect their seed should be consid- 
ered to be distinct. The evidence which has hitherto been adduced, 
militates strongly against the existence of any such law, though we 
may hardly allow it to be sufficiently complete and definite to have 
completely settled the question. Besides the existence of certain hy- 
brids which never produce ripe seeds, and of others which readily pro- 
duce them, there are some which occasionally, but rarely, do so; and 
such we find to be the case with the present plants. Professor Hen- 
slow examined a great many of its ovaries in the Bury Garden, last 
summer, (1837) in all of which the ovules were abortive, and Mr. 
Hodson informed him at the time, that no perfect seeds had been pro- 
duced ; but since then we have heard from Mr. Turner, (the gardener 
in that establishment) that “a, few good seeds” have been produced. 
We shall be anxious to learn whether plants have been raised from 
these, and if so what are the forms which they assume. May we not 
ask whether those hybrids which refuse to perfect their seed in one 
climate, and under the combination of circumstances to which they 
are now subjected in the present state of the earth’s surface, might not 
