58 



THE GARDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



the same, the origin is the same, the phenomena 

 of nutrition and of reproduction are substantially 

 the same. Wherein, then, lies the difference 

 which makes us consider ourselves " lords of the 

 creation'"? Chiefly in this, that we are more 

 or less conscious alike of our relations to those 

 creatures less highly endowed than ourselves, 

 and to the supreme First Cause to whom both 

 they and ourselves owe existence, [m. t. m.] 



CHAPTER IX. 



HYBRIDIZATION. 



Cross-fertilization — Hybridism — Isolation and Self- 

 fertilization — Double Flowers — Fertilization 

 in Cryptogamic Plants, Ferns — Vegetative 

 Sports or Bud Variation. 



Theophrastus of Eresus (born B.C. 390) was 

 the first author to refer to the fertilization of 

 dioecious plants. Both Theophrastus and Pliny, 

 who wrote in the first century of our Christian 

 era, allude to the practice of hanging the male 

 or pollen-bearing inflorescence of the Date-palm 

 on or amongst the groves of fruit-bearing or 

 female trees. The custom of " caprification ", 

 as applied to figs, consisting in hanging branches 

 of the wild fig-tree and its attendant fertilizing 

 insect upon the cultivated or fruit-bearing kinds, 

 is also of great antiquity. In these, as in 

 innumerable other instances, practice, or com- 

 mon usage amongst cultivators, has been ahead 

 of science, or the philosophical explanation of 

 things really done. 



Camerarius first clearly showed the dual 

 sexuality of flowering plants (v. Linnaeus, 

 Amcenitates, i. 62) in the years 1691-1694, 

 when he published his actual experiments with 

 Rieinus ( Castor - oil ), Mercurialis, Maize or 

 Indian Corn, and Cannabis or Hemp plants. 



In England Bradley in his New Improvements 

 in Gardening (1717), i. 20, refers to his having 

 emasculated twelve Tulip flowers, all of which 

 proved seedless, while four hundred Tulips in , 

 another part of the garden bore good seeds. I 

 A friend and correspondent of Bradley's named 

 Thomas Fairchild had a nursery -garden and 

 vineyard at Hoxton (1722), and he is believed 

 to be the raiser of the first garden hybrid or 

 "mule", viz. "Fairchild's Mule Pink", which 

 was presumably a cross, raised prior to 1705, 

 between a Carnation and the common Sweet- 

 William (Dianthus barbatus). At a later date 

 the celebrated Philip Miller of Chelsea emas- 

 culated or removed the anthers of twelve 



Tulips in his garden, but he observed that the 

 bees brought the pollen of other Tulips and 

 fertilized them (v. Gard. Did., part ii., Tulip, 

 1751). He also observed that female Spinach 

 plants growing apart from the male plants bore 

 large seeds, but these developed no embryos. 

 Morland in England and Geoffray in France 

 also made similar observations, as also did 

 Koelreuter as to insects carrying the pollen 

 from the male to the female plants of Mistletoe, 

 and the same observer was the first person on 

 the Continent to rear hybrids between various 

 species of Nicotiana, Matthioli or Stocks, Dian- 

 thus, and Hyoscyamus and Verbascum. C. 

 K. Sprengel first observed the fertilization of 

 orchid flowers by insect agency at Spandau 

 prior to 1793. Sprengel also contributed largely 

 to the then new knowledge, while in England 

 T. A. Knight, Dean Herbert, and on the Con- 

 tinent K. F. Gsertner did much to strengthen 

 Sprengel's views and experiments. 



Knight was one of the first to improve our 

 garden peas by cross - fertilization, and as a 

 result he laid down the principle that no plant 

 can fertilize itself through unlimited generations 

 without suffering in vigour and fertility. 



Herbert, who experimented largely with 

 Amaryllidaceous plants (v. Amaryllidacece, 1837, 

 and his article on "Hybridization amongst 

 Vegetables " ), also came to the conclusion 

 that pollen from other individual plants, or, 

 at least, from other flowers, gave far better 

 results than self-fertilization. To crown all 

 came Charles Darwin, who, in 1859, published 

 his wonderful Origin of Species, in which he 

 summed up nearly all that had been observed 

 and recorded, and by collating the work of 

 Koelreuter, Knight, Herbert, and Gsertner with 

 the views of Sprengel opened up our modern 

 vistas of knowledge, and proved beyond a doubt 

 the great central fact that "Nature abhors 

 perpetual self-fertilization ". 



In one word it may be said that cross-fer- 

 tilization or hybridism lies at the very root of 

 all upward and onward progress (evolution) in 

 field and garden crops alike, and by their aid 

 nearly everything desired by the cultivator 

 may be effected. Good culture and careful 

 selection may work wonders alone, but it is 

 to judicious cross-fertilization and hybridization 

 that most of our improved races, breeds, or 

 strains of fruits, vegetables, and flowers are due. 

 In proof of this we have only to look on the 

 old drawings, or specimens, of wild Fuchsias, 

 Calceolarias, Cinerarias, Pelargonia, Ericas, 

 Dahlias, Chrysanthemums, Begonias, Cannas, 



