494 PRECAUTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN CROSSING. 



asserting fertility in the produce between two members of allied but 

 distinct genera — such, for example, as in the Brianthus, which I have 

 found to be unproductive, whether employed as the male or female 

 parent. As above conjectured, its parents were far too remote in 

 nature's own arrangement. The hybridist has a field before him ever 

 suggestive of new modes of acting. He may try, as I have done, what 

 may be effected under various tinted glass. My persuasion is that I 

 effected from a pale yellow a pure white-grounded Calceolaria, by 

 placing the plants under blue shaded glass, by which the sun's rays 

 were much subdued. He may also apply chemical solutions to plants 

 with ripening seeds. Nature, in producing," as it sometimes does, 

 plants with blooms of colours opposite to those of the parent, must be 

 governed by some law. Why may not this law be found out ? For 

 example, under what influence was the first white Fuchsia, the F. 

 Venus Victrix, produced, the purest yet of all the race, and the source 

 from which all the whites have been derived ? " — McIntosKs Booh of 

 the Garden. 



In the many successful attempts made by Mr. Knight to 

 improve the quality of fruit4rees by raising new varieties, his 

 method was to obtain crossbreds by fertilising the stigma of 

 one variety of known habits with the pollen of another also of 

 known habits. But, in doing this, his experiments were not 

 conducted at random, find without due consideration; on the 

 contrary, we learn from himself, that he was very careful in 

 selecting the parents from which his crossbreds were obtained. 

 He found that the general opinion, that the offspring of cross- 

 bred plants as well as crossbred animals usually presents great 

 irregularity of character, is unfounded ; and that if a male of 

 permanent habits, and of course not crossbred, be selected, that 

 will completely overrule the disposition to sport, " the perma- 

 nent character always controlling and prevailing over the vari- 

 able." He tells us tha;t he usually propagated from the seeds 

 of such varieties as are sufficiently hardy to bear and ripen 

 their fruit, even in unfavourable seasons and situations, without 

 the protection of a wall ; because, in many experiments made 

 with a view to ascertaining the comparative influence of the 

 male and female on their offspring, he had observed in fruits, 

 with few exceptions, a strong prevalence of the constitution and 

 habits of the female parent. This, however, is the reverse 

 of the result at which Dean Herbert had arrived in the very 



