DEAN HERBERT'S INFERENCES. 495 



great number of experiments performed by himself on that 

 subject, he believing that the male parent generally influences 

 the character of the foliage, and the female that of the flowers. 

 {Ama/ryllidacece, p. 348, 377.) At a later period of his experi- 

 ments he even ventured to say, " as far as I have observed, the 

 prevailing disposition of crossbred vegetables seems to assimi- 

 late more to the male than to the female parent, though the 

 appearance may possibly be sometimes the reverse, and often 

 strictly intermediate; as far as I have seen, if we obtain a 

 cross between a hardy and a tender species, the produce, where 

 the male is hardy, will be much more hardy than where the 

 female is hardy and the male tender. This is very important 

 and very conspicuous m crossbred Ehododendrons.'^ {Journ. of 

 Uort. Soc.) It does appear to me that, in the majority of cases, 

 Dean Herbert's opinion is the more correct of the two, yet I 

 fear there is too little certainty in the results of hybridising 

 to justify the establishment of any axiom upon the subject. 



In. the midst of many experiments conducted without exactness, from 

 which no safe conclusion can be drawn, there are some which, in the 

 hands of such men as the late Dean, seem to justify the inference, that 

 in general the properties of the male parent will be most conspicuous in 

 the hybrid. For example, he crossed the long-yeUow-cupped common 

 Daffodil, with the small red-edge-cupped Poet's Narcissus ; and the seeds 

 of the common Daffodil ftrmished a bulb with most of the attributes 

 of the Poet's Narcissus. The same experimentalist also obtained out 

 of a capsule of Rhododendron pontioum, inoculated by Azalea pontica, 

 seedlings which had entirely the habit of the latter or male parent. 

 In like manner the arborescent crimson-flowered Rhododendron altacle- 

 rense was raised from the seed of the dwarf pallid E. catawbiense 

 hybridised by the arborescent crimson E. arboreum ; and when the 

 common scarlet Azalea, with its crimson flowers and narrow leaves, 

 was inoculated at Higholere by Azalea pontica, Mr. Gowen found that 

 its seeds produced plants much more like the male than the female 

 parent. Exceptions, or apparent exceptions to this, no doubt exist, and 

 hybrids could be found which are either half-way between their father 

 and mother, or more like the mother than the father ; but as far as any 

 means of judging at present exist these would seem to be the exception 

 and not the rule ; and therefore the greater influence of the male may 

 be taken as a tolerably safe guide in experiments upon this subject. 

 Some highly interesting experiments, by M. Lecoq, upon muling 

 Marvels of Peru, are on record. {Gardeners^ CJtronicU, 1853, p. 483.) 



