HYBRID PLANTS. 43 



the stigma of one which has red flowers, the seed will 

 produce a plant having purple flowers ; or, if a plant 

 with a very vigorous mode of growth is thus inter- 

 mixed with another of a very dwarf habit, the plants 

 which spring from seeds thus procured, w^ill be 

 neither very dwarf nor very tall ; and so on. This is 

 the secret of the improvement of Pelargoniums, which 

 happen to intermix very easily : a sort ^dth large 

 ugly flowers, is intermixed wdth one with small neat 

 flowers, and you have, in all probability, a variety 

 with large flowers, that are as neat in appearance as 

 those of the small flowered kind. I need not parti- 

 cularize, with more minuteness, the way in which 

 plants respectively influence each other ; a little 

 reflection must render it apparent to you, now that 

 you understand the principle. I must not, however, 

 omit to tell you, that intermixture can only take 

 place between plants very closely related to each 

 other, and that distant relations have no influence 

 the one on the other. You could not hybridize a Ge- 

 ranium with a Pelargonium, nor those Pelargoniums 

 which have fleshy tumours for stems with such as have 

 slender stems, nor even a gooseberry with a currant ; 

 but to the power of intermixing the slender stemmed 

 real Pelargoniums there seems to be no limit. 



That nature acted thus, long before man discovered 

 her secret, there can be no doubt ; for winds and in- 

 sects are as skilful hybridizers as we are ; and the 

 different races of apples, pears, and other fruit, 

 which have, in all ages, sprung up in gardens, are, 

 no doubt, indebted for their origin to such circum- 



