ON HYBRIDIZATION AMONGST VEGETABLES. 



93 



to their local habitations and associations, with research into the 

 causes that are in operation there, are the duties of the botanist ; 

 but that the distinctions between species and variety are not 

 sufficiently substantial and positive for any scientific reliance to 

 be placed upon them, and that a dispute on such a distinction is 

 waste of words and battling with the air. The genus Hymeno- 

 callis, however, though sliding into variations almost indis- 

 criminate, is perhaps one of the races most deserving considera- 

 tion of all that exist in the world. It is confined to the New 

 World (that is, to the American continent and the West Indian 

 islands), within a certain range from the equator ; it rejoices in 

 wet, and in cultivation may be kept in pots immersed in water. 

 I have not found any one form of it object to immersion during 

 its season of growth. In the form of its flower it approximates, 

 especially through H. speciosa, which has the filaments shorter 

 and rather converging, to Pancratium of the Old World so 

 nearly that it is difficult to separate them very satisfactorily by 

 the inflorescence, though the stamens of the former have rough 

 pollen, and are longer and looser ; those of the latter stiffer, 

 shorter, and conniving. But no Pancratium has been found 

 in a swamp ; they abhor excess of wet, and one which it is diffi- 

 cult to cultivate, P. tortuosum, mihi, grows in the sandy desert 

 of Arabia, near Gedda. Pancratium has shelly black seeds, and 

 Hymenocallis large fleshy green seeds, which have been usually 

 called albuminous, so that they stand in two widely distinct 

 sections of the order Amaryllidaceae, separated by a feature 

 which in other orders has been admitted even amongst the in- 

 superable limitations of the order itself. Will Pancratium and 

 Hymenocallis now blend their offspring? I believe they will 

 not; and, if produced, I am persuaded that it will be sterile. 

 Were they created distinct from each other at the beginning ? 

 I cannot compare their flowers, and presume to say that I think 

 they were. I will now state a fact which I had hoped to eluci- 

 date further, but either I had not opportunities of repeating 

 the experiments, or other matters prevented me from availing 

 myself of them. At p. 211, Amar., I gave a detailed account 

 of the origin of four seedlings, called H. amoena var. lorata, 

 kortensis, from four weak discoloured seeds of H. amoena, which 

 had been deprived of its anthers and touched with the pollen of 

 another genus. That pollen was taken from P. Illyricum. 

 The lorate leaves, and the weakness and discolouration of the 

 seeds, at first made me think that a bigeneric cross was obtained ; 

 but there was no increased hardiness of constitution, and no 

 difference in the inflorescence derived from the male parent. I 

 have, therefore, no reason to assert that P. Illyricum had had any 

 influence. Accidental admission of its own pollen, or of that of 



