432 Queries and Answers. 



Pomaderris />runifolia, commencing" This plant was raised in the Handsworth 

 Nursery, from seeds sent home by the unfortunate Douglas," &c, should have 

 been placed under Ceanothus collinus. 



Art. VI. Queries and Ansivers. 



Professor Henslow , s Queries on Hybridising. — Did you see the queries in 

 the Gardener's Gazette of June 9., which were given by Professor Henslow to 

 the Cambridge Horticultural Society, at a late meeting of that body ? They 

 refer to the interesting subject of hybridising plants. Though most of these 

 queries are of a simple nature, the difficulty of attending to the minutiae neces- 

 sary to a final and satisfactory answer is so great, that 1 fear the present ge- 

 neration will not be able to give a satisfactory answer to them. However, I 

 may be in error ; for you will recollect that in a former letter I gave you some- 

 thing like an answer to the second query, which I said was very extraordinary. 

 The Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert made the discovery, and informed me of it; 

 but, as it will soon appear in his own forthcoming work, you had better say 

 nothing farther about it at present. — D. B. Kingsbury, June, 1839. 



The following are the queries alluded to by our correspondent : — 



" 1. Does any peculiarity become more firmly fixed in plants, by being 

 transmitted through several generations ? Suppose B to be a peculiar variety 

 (as a yellow flower) raised from a like variety A, would an equal number of 

 the same variety as A and B be raised from the same number of seeds of A 

 and B respectively ? 



" 2. Is the pollen of a wild plant (or one in its uncultivated form) more 

 effectual than that of some other cultivated variety, in fertilising the same 

 species ? Would the pollen of a wild cabbage stain the seeds of the neigh- 

 bouring cauliflowers more readily than would the pollen of broccoli, red cab- 

 bage, &c. ? Please to give any information about the degree of care necessary 

 in raising seeds of the more artificial vegetables and flowers, to prevent their 

 being accidentally crossed by other varieties. Will a single plant of one variety 

 produce much injury in a large bed of another ? Is there more difficulty in 

 preventing the more artificial vegetables being crossed than the commoner ones, 

 or those which retain more of their original form ? Of course there would be 

 a greater tendency in the former to degenerate ; but this question only applies 

 to the effects of accidental crossing from other varieties. 



" 3. If a variety of a plant be crossed with another variety, and likewise with 

 the plant in its aboriginal state, will the effect on the character of the first 

 seeds be greater, or will it be more permanent, in the successive seedling gene- 

 rations, in the one case than in the other ? 



" 4. When the seeds of a highly cultivated plant, as of a calceolaria, produce 

 great diversity, do you attribute part of this diversity to crosses from others, 

 or to deterioration and to differences of external conditions ? Do the seed- 

 ling varieties in such cases, though not producing plants like their parents, 

 somewhat resemble each other ? 



" 5. Do you know any cases of a peculiarity in a plant, which, although it 

 was not transmitted to the immediate offspring, yet reappeared in the second 

 generation (grandchildren), and where it is believed not to have been caused 

 by a repetition of the conditions that first produced it in the original plant ? 



" 6. In making hybrids, do the seedlings mostly resemble the father or 

 mother ? 



" 7. Do you know any cases of different kinds of peas, when sown near 

 each other, having produced crosses by accident ? 



" 8. In making hybrids : in those cases in which the stigma of one plant has 

 been impregnated by the ]JoUen of a second, and afterwards the stigma of the 

 second by the pollen of the first, what were the differences of the seedlings 

 with respect to their resemblance to their parents ? " 



