14 



ON HYBRIDIZATION AMONGST VEGETABLES. 



other genus ; so that, if the species of any one genus are varia- 

 tions generated from one original type, the species of every genus 

 must respectively have descended from a peculiar type ; otherwise 

 it would be apparent that the same thing is not meant when the 

 words genus and species are used in the one case and in the other, 

 and that the application of the words is vague and unscientific. 

 If I have shown that the species of one genus are convertible, 

 and therefore of one origin, I have shown that every genus must 

 have had one original type, unless the genus which I bring in 

 evidence shall appear to be in truth a division of an inferior 

 grade, and not deserving of the name of a genus. Let us, there- 

 fore, inquire how the fact stands. It so happens, as if expressly 

 to prevent the possibility of any doubt on that point, that the 

 genus in which I have lately produced the proof of the most mar- 

 vellous convertibility, is not only a valid genus, but embraces 

 greater structural differences than any genus amongst the seven 

 or eight thousand that have been defined — I mean the genus 

 Narcissus, which, on account of those diversities, had been sub- 

 divided into a number of genera ; which supposed genera have 

 been found capable of breeding together and re-crossing, so that 

 not only intermediate forms can be originated, but one even of 

 the supposed genera can be obtained in two or three generations 

 from the capsule of another. This cannot stand as an isolated 

 fact. It holds out a warning to all botanists, that on closer in- 

 vestigation it will be found, not merely that the genera of plants 

 duly modified are the descendants of individuals which have 

 branched into variations, but that a great portion of the seven 

 or eight thousand are not even real individual types, but sections 

 of a genus or kind embracing a certain class of variations, which 

 have peculiar affinities to each other, and which in many, per- 

 haps in most, cases cannot now intermix with plants of another 

 section. The circumstances of the genus Crinum do not speak 

 with less force as to this point. When I first introduced and 

 described a number of species of Crinum which had not been 

 known before in Europe, I was greatly censured by some expe- 

 rienced botanists for asserting that plants, which they held to be 

 species of Amaryllis, were in fact variations of the genus 

 Crinum, and it was even declared that Crinum was more nearly 

 allied to Pancratium than to the species in question. I proved 

 the justice of my botanical view of that point by obtaining not 

 merely sterile mules but a fertile offspring between the Common 

 Cape Crinum, which was before erroneously called Amaryllis 

 longifolia, and the great Crinum pedunculatum of New Holland. 

 I have now in my garden a further seedling from such a mule, 

 between the Crinum Capense and Crinum canaliculatum which is 

 closely akin to pedunculatum, with ripe seeds upon it. Gene- 



