ON HYBRIDIZATION AMONGST VEGETABLES. 



19 



investigators of the glorious creation by which Almighty God 

 has surrounded him. 



Hippeastrum and Narcissus are, I think, the genera in which 

 the most remarkable convertibility of species has appeared. In 

 the former genus no impediment has occurred in the inter- 

 mixture of any of the various natural forms. Seed, when ob- 

 tained, from Hippeastrum reginae-vittatum has reproduced the 

 cross-bred flower, though usually of rather inferior size. It is, 

 I think, desirable to enter into special details. I stated (Amaryl- 

 lidaceae, p. 371) that I had found flowers of every cross-bred kind 

 of Hippeastrum, after its stigma had been touched with the pollen 

 of another bred by a different cross, produce seed abundantly ; 

 while those on the same stem, which were touched with their 

 own pollen only, either failed to produce seed, or produced few, 

 and those in a capsule very deficient in size and vigour. The 

 observation of several years enables me now to say that this 

 remarkable fact is almost invariable, and that, although the 

 hybrids in this genus are capable of bearing seed by their own 

 pollen, the admission of the pollen of another cross-bred plant 

 of the same genus (however complicated the cross) to any one 

 flower of the umbel, is almost sure to check the fructification of 

 the others, so that the excision of the anthers in such case is 

 quite superfluous, the difficulty being to get the individuals to 

 fertilize their own germens. This remarkable fact led me to 

 try a further experiment, and the result has brought to light a 

 startling fact, that in the same genus the pollen of a cross-bred 

 plant can even overpower the natural fertilization of a wild bulb 

 of an unmixed species. For this experiment I chose a bulb 

 lately dug up by Mr. Gardner on the Organ Mountains in 

 Brazil, and sent to me by the kindness of G. Wailes, Esq., of 

 Newcastle ; closely allied to H. aulicum, of which it may be 

 called var. Organense, or, if it be separated as a species, H. Or- 

 ganense, having the scape usually two-flowered, the red not 

 intense or shining as it is in Aulicum, and the screen in the 

 throat ragged and half-bearded. The very bulb lately dug up 

 in Brazil was used. It produced two two-flowered scapes ; the 

 first pair of flowers were touched with their own dust, and the 

 germens swelled ; of the second scape, which was several days 

 later, one flower was touched with its own, and the other by the 

 dust of a fine triple cross from H. bulbulosum, var. pulverulen- 

 tum by reginae-vittatum, otherwise called Johnsoni. The ovaries 

 of the three flowers impregnated by the natural pollen for a few 

 days after the decay of the last flowers appeared to have the ad- 

 vantage, and the fourth continued smaller, and seemed likely to 

 fail, when it unexpectedly made a rapid advance, and imme- 

 diately the three others ceased to grow, and after a few days 



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