8 Poselprer 7 .l6 . 1855 



And who can prove it for our Cirsia and. Mentha e ? Fresumed,, 

 that we understand as "bastard s 1 * only the product of nixing two dif- 

 ferent species and not two varieties o^ one and the same species». 



I an convinced, that Nature is a friend of bastard produc - 

 tion« She provided each of her creatures with their own senen (res- 

 pectively pollen) f and if this is not r>rohibited by force, it will pre 

 vent f ertili zati on throusrh semen of another species . In the world 

 of plants bastard. Generation nay perhaps occur first with. the .dio» 

 rists.( I an not familiär x*ith this word : Dicfristen, E.D. ) • In the 

 animal world, where in the higher classes are nothing but di^rists, 

 we find even here never Generation of bastards in Nature, and what 

 effort does it take, to produ.ee it through art l I am also of the 

 opinion, that Lindheiner is in error about the Opuntlae - ba s t ar d s . 

 I believe to know the plants, whlch he refers to; I observed this 

 during my entire trip with considerable astonishment , but believed, 

 to have to consider it always as a seed variety, whereby, however, 

 all possible transitions are pre s en t • When I saw this, I lost the 

 courage, to dare to p*o to the Opuntlae , I feit, that I was much too 

 weak, to solve this endless' complication,and I believe, that nobody 

 will sucoeed, who can not study the Opuntlae exclusively for nany 

 years. Because all I have said about the Inf luence of climate and 

 soll conditions concerning f ormlng of varieties, applies in specially 

 high de^ree for the Opuntlae . - 



The Man , sphaerica grows in Texas near Corpus Christi' near the 

 ocean shore; I found it there neither in f'lower nor in fruit. With us 

 in Europe, it flowers quite readily, with very large, yellow flowers,, 

 whlch resemble those of Man . 1 on.pci nanraa : soraetimes it is covered with 

 f lowers so densely, that the body of the plant is < not visible; but 

 it has never porduced viable seeds; the fruit s are green..It snrouts 

 strongly. 



