yb WATER-LILIES 



widest sense so as to include both crosses 

 between species and those between varieties) 

 is a subject that the scientific botanist prefers 

 to evade. In the Monograph of the Genus 

 Nymphaea (by Henry S. Conard), pubhshed 

 by the Carnegie Institute in 1905, a large 

 number of hybrids whose names have ap- 

 peared from time to time in various horti- 

 cultural publications are fully discussed. 

 Too often financial considerations or the 

 fond belief in the undoubted success of an 

 attempted cross have led to the publication 

 of the most high-sounding, frequently most 

 ridiculous, claims. Much regret would have 

 been spared had this fundamental rule of 

 hybridisation been remembered: that by 

 crossing, new characters, z. e. characters not 

 existing in the ancestors, can not be pro- 

 duced. The most careful scrutiny of the 

 entire horticultural field shows but few 

 apparent exceptions to this rule and they are 

 often susceptible of other explanation.* 



* An example of a wholly new character is the notch in the sinus 

 of the leaf of W. Robinsoni. H. S. C. 



