Retrospective Criticism. 119 



try, and opposite the upper end of Size Lane, Bucklersbury, along with the 

 plane tree, the elder tree, and the Virginian creeper ; these three are already 

 mentioned. Vol. VIII. p. 244. — J,D. 



Difficulties in the Question of Hyhridisement hettveen Melons and Cucum- 

 bers, (VoL Vin."p. 611.) — Sir, I have a few observations to make on Mr, 

 Oliver's communication, in Vol. VIII. p. 611., and then the matter must 

 remain in statu quo until the course of next season shall have furnished tihe 

 result of the cultivation of the seeds which I now await from him. In the 

 mean time, I beg to invite whoever of your correspondents may have it in 

 their power to adduce facts which might tend to the elucidation of the 

 subject under discussion, to enregister them in your Magazine, in orda: 

 that this question may no longer remain in its present indecisive state. 

 Indeed, it is a circumstance which may well excite surprise, that it should 

 he necessai-y to rake up instances to support what has for so long a period 

 been considered an indisputable fact: and if the event prove, which I 

 doubt not it will, that it has been thus long conceived in eiTor, it is still 

 more astonishing, relating, as it does, to fruit so generally cultivated, and 

 continually under the eyes of so many presumed observei's. Fully aware 

 that I combat a received opinion, and that, consequently, the majority of 

 the facts which may be brought forwai-d, having been viewed through such 

 a medium, will, in the greater number of cases, throw their weight into 

 the opposite scale, I nevertheless feel certain of the result, provided ample 

 details and minute accuracy are furnished, or the means of obtaining them 

 by personal investigation afforded. Should they, however, prove unan- 

 swerable, I shall then, at least, have ground (which hitherto I still consider 

 wanting) for resuming my first opinion j though still deeming myself an 

 unlucky wight, that chance should in other cases have effected what my 

 careful experiments had, in every instance, failed to consummate. 



Mr. Oliver has assuredly fallen into error in concluding that the form of 

 the fruit was immediately influenced by the pollen of the melon. It is 

 strictly established and universally admitted, that the embryo of the seed 

 is alone affected, occasioning the production of hybrids in the next succeed- 

 ing generation ; the pericarpium, which is a mere continuation and modi- 

 fication of the branch, undergoing no change consequent on the impreg- 

 nation of its ovuJa by pollen foreign to its own. There are divers ways of 

 accounting for the variation of the fruit, any, or mayhap none, of which 

 may be the true one. For instance, a seed of a variety of a melon (which 

 might, too, have been hybridised when in flower) in flavour such as is 

 described, may by chance have been unwittingly sown with the others ; 

 such I, at least, possess ; having the flavour of cucumber strongly pro- 

 nounced, when not exposed, during its growth, to the direct rays of the 

 sun, which it is that effects the conversion of the acid, &c. into sugar, and 

 gives to fruit its pro-per flavour. Again, it Ls certain that the fruit men- 

 tioned as only used for mangoes is truly the Cucumis sativus. There are 

 others of the same and analogous genera very nearly resembling, more 

 especially the Cucumis flexuosus when fecundated by a smooth variety of 

 the melon, and which, as is often the case with Eastern and Persian melons 

 unless cultivated with every disposable artificial aid, do not mature their 

 seeds. Another cause of the barrenness may be, the late season at which 

 the fruit was ripened. Again, the male blossoms may have been wholly, 

 or nearly' so, devoid of pollen j and, consequently, from these being grown, as 

 is stated, in a two-light frame, containing no other variety, no fecundation 

 was effected (not an absolute bar to the growth of the fruit). I could 

 raise other objections ; but these will suffice to show the necessity of cau- 

 tiously receiving an isolated and (I still maintain, as far as regards the 

 question in hand) equivocal fact, singly opposed to a mass of careful and 

 varied experiments, as a sufficient proof for the establishment of theory 



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