PREFACE 



IT may be profitable to describe what the author has been 

 able to achieve in an experience dating back to 1842, not 

 only in crossing Ferns, but in his experiments in the hybridi- 

 sation of other plants. These embrace the Fuchsia, Pansy, 

 Cactus, Dahlia, Aquilegia, Centaurea, Camelia, Primrose, Oxlip, 

 Narcissus, Mimulus, Chrysanthemum, Currant, Rhubarb, &c. 



The small-leaved Fuchsias were crossed with Fuchsia fuigens, 

 and a hybrid obtained, named Polyhymnia, which has a small 

 leaf of the pale colour oi fuigens, and a long tubular flower with 

 a large corolla also of the same colour as fuigens (the pollen 

 of this would never cross with another Fuchsia). By using 

 both Fuchsias as seed-bearers, it was apparent that the habit 

 and form of leaf copied the seed-bearer, and the flower that 

 of the male. 



In Pansies the endeavour was to improve the form and size 

 of the flower, and to obtain a more robust constitution, also 

 to raise a Blue Pansy, which was then a desideratum ; a Blue 

 Pansy was raised (the first year), and is known by the name 

 o{ Imperial Blue. Twenty-four seedling pansies competed with 

 seven other exhibits at the Royal Botanic Society, and they 

 won the First Prize and the Silver Medal against all the 

 named well-known varieties of the other exhibitors. 



With the Cactus, a scarlet was crossed with a white one ; 

 there are a number of seedlings, but they have not yet bloomed. 



