ANDEBSON'S PRACTICE. 493 



only be so imparted, but even heightened, varied, and improved. Or 

 if it be desired to transfer all, or any valuable property or quality, 

 from a tender exotic species to a native or hardy kind, work upon the 

 latter ; for so far as constitution goes, I agree with those who hold that 

 the female overrules in this particular, I would offer this caution to 

 those who wish to preserve the purity of certain flowers for exhibition, 

 especially those having white grounds, not to cross such with high 

 coloured sorts. I once spoiled a pure white-bloomed Calceolaria for 

 exhibition by crossing it with a crimson sort ; all the blooms on those 

 branches where the operation had been performed, being stained red, 

 and not the few flowers merely on which the cross was effected. In 

 this note, already too long, I cannot further illustrate my remarks, by 

 recorded experiments in the various tribes upon which I have tried my 

 hand; but I cannot leave the subject without inculcating, in the 

 strongest manner, the observance of the rules I have Md down to 

 prevent vexatious disappointments. If any doubts arise about the 

 cross being genuine or effectually secured, let not the seeds be sown. 

 Three, four, five, and even six years, must oftentimes elapse with trees 

 and shrubby things ere the result can be judged of ; and if eventually 

 it prove a failure, or even doubtful, it is worse than labour lost, inas-, 

 much as it may mislead. If there is no great departure from the 

 female parent, the issue is to be mistrusted. It is singular, if well 

 accomplished, how much of both parents is blended in the progeny. 

 Gentlemen eminent as physiologists have read nature's laws in these 

 matters a little differently from what my own humble experience has 

 taught me, and assigned to the progeny the constitution and general 

 aspect of the one parent, while they gave the inflorescence and fruit to 

 the other. I have crossed and inverted the cross, and can venture to 

 give no evidence on the point, except, perhaps, as to constitution, to 

 which the seed-bearer, I think, contributes most. A well-managed 

 hybrid should and will blend both parents into a distinct intermediate, 

 insomuch so as to produce often what might pass for a new species. If 

 the leaning be to one more than another, it is probably to the female, 

 though this will not always be the case. Again, it is asserted that a 

 proper hybrid — i.e., one species which is crossed with another species, 

 which is separate and distinct from it — will produce no fertile seeds. 

 This does not accord with my observations. Dr. Lindley has remarked 

 very justly (Theory of Horticulture, p. 69), ' But facts prove that 

 undoubted hybrids may be fertile.' My hybrid, Yeronica Balfonriana 

 (an intermediate between V. saxatilis and V. fruticulosa), seeds, I 

 would say, more abundantly than either parent ; and the progeny from 

 its self-sown seeds I find ix) be of various shades of blue, violet, and 

 red, rising in my garden, some having actually larger, finer, and 

 higher-coloured blooms than the parent bearing the seed ; and I am 

 familiar with the same result in other things. Yet I am far from 



