130 



GOOD FEOM CROSSING. 



Chap. XVII. 



"But 



ec 



cc 



t( 



the most remarkable circumstance was 



Wiegmann 4S made many crosses between several varieties of cabbage ■ 

 and lie speaks with astonishment of the vigour and height of the mongrels' 

 which excited the amazement of all the gardeners who beheld them! 

 Mr. Channdy raised a great number of mongrels by planting together six 

 distinct varieties of cabbage. These mongrels displayed an infinite 

 diversity of character; 

 that, while all the other cabbages and borecoles in the nurserv were 

 destroyed by a severe winter, these hybrids were little injured, and 

 supplied the kitchen when there was no other cabbage to be had." 

 Mr. Maund exhibited before the Eoyal Agricultural Society 49 specimens 

 of crossed wheat, together with their parent varieties; and the editor 

 states that they were intermediate in character, " united with that greater 

 vigour of growth, which it appears, in the vegetable as in the animal 

 world, is the result of a first cross." Knight also crossed several varieties 

 of wheat, 50 and he says " that in the years 1795 and 1796, when almost 

 the whole crop of corn in the island was blighted, the varieties thus 

 obtained, and these only, escaped in this neighbourhood, though sown 

 " in several different soils and situations." 



a 



u 



M 



nigricans, Q 



lercus rdbur and pedunculated, Alnus glutinosa and incana, 

 Vlmus campestris and effusa ; and the cross-fertilised seeds, as well as seeds 

 of the pure parent-trees, were all sown at the same time and in the same 

 place. The result was, that after an interval of eight years, the hybrids 

 were one-third taller than the pure trees !•■'■■ 



The facts above given refer to undoubted varieties, excepting the trees 

 crossed by Clotzsch, which are ranked by various botanists as strongly- 

 marked races, sub-species, or species. That true hybrids raised from 

 entirely distinct species, though they lose in fertility, often gain in size 

 and constitutional vigour, is certain. It would be superfluous to quote 

 any facts ; for all experimenters, Kolreuter, Gartner, Herbert, Sageret, 

 Lecoq, and Naudin, have been struck with the wonderful vigour, height, 

 size, tenacity of life, precocity, and hardiness of their hybrid productions. 

 Gartner 52 sums up his conviction on this head in the strongest terms. 

 Kolreuter 53 gives numerous precise measurements of the weight and height 

 of his hybrids in comparison with measurements of both parent-forms ; 

 and speaks with astonishment of their " statura portent osa" their " ambitus 

 vastissimus ac altitudo valde conspicua" Some exceptions to the rule in the 



case of very sterile hybrids have, however, been noticed by Gartner and 



vol. ii., 1855, p. 327. 



52 Gartner, ' Bastarderzeugung,' s. 



48 ' Ueber die Bastarderzeugung,' 1828, 

 s. 32, 33. For Mr. Chaundy's case, see 

 Loudon's ■ Gard. Mag.,' vol. vii. 1831, 259, 518, 526 et seq. 



p. 696. 53 ' Fortsetzung,' 1763, s. 29 ; ' Dritte 



49 < Gardener's Chron./ 1846, p. 601. Fortsetzung,' s. 44, 96; 'Act. Acad. 



50 < Philosoph. Transact.,' 1799, p. St. Petersburg,' 1782, part ii., p. 251 ; 



201. 



Nova Acta,' 1793, pp 



o 



O 



91, 394; 



51 Quoted in ' Bull. Bot. Soc. France,' < Nova Acta,' 1795, pp. 316, 323. 



