ON HYBRIDIZATION AMONGST VEGETABLES. 



87 



from the mountains of Chili ; set with the pollen of other 

 hybrids it has produced handsome varieties perfectly herbaceous. 

 The whole produce of the pod I have mentioned having been 

 similar to the parent plant, and quite distinct in appearance 

 from any other Calceolaria, there can be no doubt that, if they 

 were planted in a wild spot, of which the soil, circumstances, 

 and climate suited their growth and fructification, a new species, 

 according to the terms and acceptation of botanists, would have 

 been there established ; and yet any person who cultivated Cal- 

 ceolaria integrifolia by impregnating it with C. plantaginea 

 would obtain the like. We learn that most of the fine heaths 

 of South Africa are very local. Above thirty years ago I 

 announced that I had crossed E. vestita coccinea with jasmini- 

 flora (though Mr. Salisbury fancied they were of two separate 

 genera, on account of the shape of the seed-pods) ; and it is now 

 ascertained that Mr. Rollisson, of Tooting, raised E. jasminiflora 

 by mule impregnation between E. Aytoni and ampullacea, and 

 several others, of which no wild specimens have been found, and 

 kept his secret until his death for the sake of profit. The genus 

 Erica not yielding its pollen till the anthers are forcibly touched, 

 and having the stigma therefore extremely likely to be hybridized 

 in a wild state, there seems reason to believe that the species 

 have been multiplied on the African wastes not merely by the 

 variation of soil and position, but still further by the intermixture 

 of the various forms which had so arisen. Such things occur 

 occasionally even between plants widely distinct. A single bulb 

 of Crinum submersum was found in a pool of water in Brazil in 

 company with plants of a variety of C. erubescens, one of which 

 had been impregnated by pollen of C. scabrum which grows on 

 woody hills, and of which the pollen must have been brought by 

 an insect or humming bird. I must not quit the mention of 

 Rhododendron without stating that the mules of the late Mr. 

 Smith of Norbiton by Azalea Sinensis were raised, as I know for 

 certain, from a white Rhododendron of the cross between R. 

 Ponticum and the white maximum, which abounds on the hills 

 of Jersey in the United States, being a distinct local plant, im- 

 pregnated by Azalea Sinensis ; and that it is erroneously stated 

 in the Ghent ' Flore des Serres' that they are crossed by Rh. 

 arboreum. I saw the mother plant when the seed-pods were still 

 green. Mr. Smith crossed R. arboreum with Dauricum semper- 

 virens, but I could not prevail upon him to sell the plants, or 

 house them, and they all died young from frost and neglect. 

 My own Rh. Aprilis was raised from a Pontic Rhododendron by 

 Dauricum sempervirens, and has made no seed. 



Let us now take a view of the circumstances attending the 

 genus Gladiolus. With the exception of the few species of 



