

JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



Part II— PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 

 No. III.— 1867. 



On the Reproductive Functional Relations of several Species and 

 Varieties of Verbasca. 



By John Seott, Esq., 



Curator of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Calcutta. 



In this paper, I purpose giving an account of a numerous and carefully 

 performed series of experiments on the hybrid and cross-unions of several 

 species and varieties of Verbasca, with the view of illustrating those 

 functional relations, or differences existing between the results of unions 

 of distinct species on the one hand, with those of different varieties of 

 the same species on the other. I believe, the generally accepted view 

 of naturalists on this point is, that a certain degree of sterility 

 always results from the union of distinct species in their first hybrid 

 produce, and that their progeny are absolutely infertile one with 

 another ; while in the cross-unions of varieties of a species, the ferti- 

 lity is in no respect affected in the first cross, and the progeny are, in 

 every case, perfectly fertile, one with another. These relative differ- 

 ences, then, in the products of hybridism and mongrelism are 

 strongly maintained to be decisively demarcative of the factors, in- 

 cluded under the terms " species" and " varieties," affording, so to 

 speak, an unequivocal analysis, whereby nature's original and immu- 



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