SEPTEMBER, 1909.] THE ORCHID REVIEW. 259 
the new individual will follow the same law which rules the mother. If it 
chance that an egg cell unite with a dissimilar pollen cell, we must then 
assume that between those elements of both cells which determine opposite 
characters some sort of compromise is effected. The resulting compound 
cell becomes the foundation of the hybrid organism, the development of 
which necessarily follows a different scheme from that obtaining in each of 
the two original parents. Ifthe compromise be taken to be a complete one, 
in the. sense that dissimilar qualities are, in the hybrid embryo, entirely 
and permanently accommodated together, the further result follows that the 
hybrids, like any other stable plant species, reproduce themselves truly in 
their offspring, the reproductive cells formed in their seed vessels 
and anther cells being of one kind, and agreeing with the fundamental 
compound cell from which they originated. With regard to those hybrids 
whose progeny is variable, he assumed that between the differentiating 
elements there also occurs a compromise, in so far that the formation of a 
cell as foundation of the hybrid becomes possible, though the arrangement 
between the conflicting elements is only temporary, not enduring 
throughout the life of the hybrid plant, but as no changes are: perceptible 
during the whole period of vegetation, we must assume that it is only 
possible for the differentiating elements to liberate themselves from the 
enforced union when the fertilising cells are developed. In the formation 
of these cells all existing elements participate in an entirely free and equal 
arrangement, by which it is only the differentiating ones which mutually 
separate themselves. In this way the production would be rendered 
possible of as many sorts of egg and pollen cells as there are combinations 
possible of the formative elements. 
Mendel carefully compared his results with the very different ones 
obtained by Gartner and Wichura, in which certain hybrids remained 
constant in their progeny, and propagated themselves as truly as the pure 
species, remarking that the correctness of the facts had been guaranteed 
and could not be doubted—Gartner indeed had the opportunity of following 
up the constancy of a hybrid Dianthus to the tenth generation, since it 
regularly propagated itself in the garden—and he added, “‘ To the history of 
the evolution of plants this circumstance is of —— importance, since 
constant hybrids acquire the status of new species.” 
He also made the following very significant remark: “It is more than 
probable that as regards the variability of cultivated plants there exists a 
factor which so far has received little attention. Various experiments force 
us to the conclusion that our cultivated plants with few exceptions are 
members of various hybrid series, whose further development in conformity 
with law is varied and interrupted by frequent crossings iter se. The 
circumstance must not be overlooked that cultivated plants are mostly 
