Book I, 



IMPREGNATION OF VEGETABLES. 



183 



were found to possess the good qualities of both of the varieties employed, laniting the greatest health 

 and luxuriance with the finest and best-flavoured fruit. 



823. Improved varieties of every fruit and esculent plant may be obtained by means of artificial impreg- 

 nation, or crossing, as they were obtained in the cases already stated. Whence Knight thinks, that this 

 promiscuous impregnation of species has been intended by nature to take place, and that it does in fact 

 often take place, for the purpose of correcting such accidental varieties as arise from seed, and of con- 

 fining them witliin narrower limits. All which is thought to be countenanced from the consideration of 

 the variety of methods which nature employs to disperse the pollen, either by the elastic spring of the 

 anthers, the aid of the winds, or the instrumentality of insects. But, although he admits the existence 

 of vegetable hybrids, that is, of varieties obtained from the intermixture of difxerent species of the same 

 genus, yet he does not admit the existence of vegetable mules, that is, of varieties obtained from the 

 intermixture of the species of different genera ; in attempting to obtain which he could never succeed, 

 in spite of all his efforts. Hence he suspects that where such varieties have been supposed to take place, 

 the former must have been mistaken for the latter. It may be said, indeed, that if the case exists in the 

 animal kingdom, why not in the vegetable kingdom ? to which it is, perhaps, difhcult to give a satisfactory 

 reply. But from the narrow limits within which this intercourse is in all cases circumscribed, it scarcely 

 seems to have been the intention of nature that it should succeed even among animals. Salisbury is of a 

 different opinion, and considers (Hort. Trans, i. 36i.) that new species may be created both by bees and 

 the agency of man ; and the recent experiments of Herbert, Sweet, and others seem to confirm this 

 opinion. Sweet's experience leads him to conclude that the plants of all orders strictly natural may be 

 reciprocally impregnated with success, and he has already, in the nursery-gardens of Messrs. Colvillc, 

 produced many new geranise and rhoderaceas. 



82-1. A singular or anomalous effect of crossing, or extraneous impregnation, is the change sometimes un 

 dergone by the seed or fruit which is produced by the blossom impregnated. These effects are not uniform 

 results, but they are of frequent occurrence, and'have attracted notice from a very early period. John Tur- 

 ner observes {Hort. Trans, v. 63.) that Theophrastus and Plinj {Tkeophrast. Hist Plant. 1. ii. c. 4?. ; PliniiHist. 

 Nat. 1. xvii. c. 25.) seem to allude to it, and that the notion was entertained by Bradley, who, in his 

 New Ijnprovements in Planting and Gardening, after giving directions for fertilising the female flowers 

 of the hazel with the pollen of the male, says, " By this knowledge v/ e may alter the property and taste 

 of any fruit, by impregnating the one with the farina of another of the same class, as, for example, a 

 codlin with a pearmain, which will occasion the codlin so impregnated to last a longer time than usual, 

 and be of a sharper taste ; or if the winter fruit should be fecundated with the dust of the summer kinds, 

 they will decay before their usual time ; and it is from this accidental coupling of the farina of one kind with 

 the'other, that in an orchard, where there is variety of apples, even the fruit gathered from the same tree 

 diflTers in its flavor and times of ripening ; and, moreover, the seeds of those apples so generated, being 

 changed by that means from their natural qualities, will produce different kinds of fruit, if th.ey are sov/n." 

 Turner, after quoting several instances, and, among others, one from the Philosophical Transactions 

 " concerning the effect which the farina of the blossoms of different sorts of apples had on the fruit of 

 a neighbouring tree," states upv/ards of six cases of hybridised apples, that had come within liis own 

 observation, and concludes with the remark, that if there does exist in fruits such a liability to change, 

 it will at once be evident to the intelligent cultivator how much care is requisite in growing melon.-, 

 cucumbers, &c. to secure their true characters, even without reference to saving seed for a future crop. 

 In the same volume of the Horticidtural Transactions (p. 2.34,), an account is given of different-colored 

 peas being produced in the same pod by crossing the parent blossom. AU these facts seem to contradict 

 the generally received opinion, that crossing only affects the next generation ; here it appears to affect 

 the embryo offspring ; and a gardener who had no keeping apples in his orchard, might communicate 

 that quality in part to his summer fruit by borrowing the use of a neighbour's blossoms from a late variety. 

 It is probable, however, that such counter-impregnations do not take place readily ; otherwise the produce 

 of a common orchard would be an ever-varying round of monstrosities. 



Sect. VIII. Changes consequent upon Lnfiregnation, 

 825. The peciiUar changes consequent upon impregnation, whether in the flowers or 

 fruit, may be considered as external and internal. , 



826. External changes. At the period of the impregnation of the ovary the flower has attained to its 

 ultimate state of perfection, and displayed its utmost beauty of coloring and richness of perfume. But as 

 it is now no longer wanted, so it is no longer provided for in the economy of vegetation. Its period of 

 decline has commenced ; as is indicated, first by the decay of the stamens, then of the petals, and then of 

 the calyx, which wither and shrink up, and finally detach themselves from the fruit altogether, except in 

 some particular cases in which one or other of them becomes permanent and falls only with the fruit. The 

 stigma exhibits also similar symptoms of decay, and the style itself often perishes. The parts contiguous 

 to the flower, such as the bractes and floral leaves, are sometimes also affected ; and finally the whole 

 plant, at least in the case of annuals, begins to exhibit indications of decay. But while the flower withers 

 and falls, the ovary is advancing to perfection, swelUng and augmenting in size, and receiving now all the 

 nutriment by which the decayed parts were formerly supported. Its color begins to assume a deeper and 

 richer tinge; its figure is also often altered, and new parts are even occasionally added — wings crests, 

 prickles, hooks, bloom, down. The common receptacle of the fruit undergoes also similar changes, becom- 

 ing sometimes large and succulent, as in the fig and strawberry ; and sometimes juiceless and indurated, as 

 in compound flowers. 



827. Internal changes. If the ovary is cut open as soon as it is first discoverable in the flower, it pre- 

 sents to the eye merely a pulpy and homogeneous mass. But if it is allowed to remain till immediately 

 before the period of its impregnation, it will now be found to be divisible into several distinct parts, exhi- 

 biting an apparatus of cells, valves, and membranes, constituting the pericarp, and sometimes the external 

 coat^ of the seed. In this case the umbilical cord is also to be distinguished ; but the embryo is not yet 

 visible. These changes, therefore, are to be attributed merely to the operation of the ordinary laws of 

 vegetable developement, and are not at all dependent upon impregnation. But impregnation has no 

 sooner taken place than its influence begins to be visible ; the umbilical cord, which was formerly sliort 

 and distended, is now generally converted into a long and slender thread. Sometimes the position of the 

 seed is altered. Before impregnation the seeds of caryophyllus aromaticus, and netrosideros gummifera, 

 are horizontal ; after impregnation they become vertical Before impregnation the magnolia seeds are 

 erect; after impregnation they become inverted and pendulous. The figure of the seed is often also 

 altered in passing from its young to its mature state; changing from smooth to angular, from tapering to 

 oval, from oval to round, and from round to kidney-shaped. But all seeds are not brought to maturity, of 

 which the rudiments may exist in the ovary. Lagoecia and hasselquistia, produce uniformly the rudi- 

 ments of two seeds, of which they mature but one. But the principal changes resulting from impregnation 

 are operated in the seed itself, which, though previously a homogeneous and gelatinous mass, is now con- 

 verted into an organised body, or embryo. Such are the phenomena, according to the description of 

 Gaertner, accompanying or following the impregnation of all flowers producing seeds; exceptions occur 

 where the fecundation is spurious or incomplete ; where the ovary swells, but exhibits no traces of perfect 

 seed within, as often happens in the vine and tamus ; or when barren and fertile seeds are intermingled 

 together in the same ovary. This proceeds from some defect either in the quantity or quality of the pollen ; 



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