Missouri Botanical Garden 

 George Engelmann Papers 



M.De Saporta 

 Fonscolombe 

 at Puy-St.R6parade 

 1B de Rhone 



July 15,1880 

 Very esteemed Sir, 



I received with great pleasure and read with keen interest your memoir on the gender Pinus that 



you were kind enough to send me with a covering letter dated April 23. 



From that day on I have been absent nearly all the time. This has deprived me ofthe honour of 



writing you and acknowledging the receipt ofyour memoir and your letter. 



Even though I am very absorbed by fossil botany, I have in the meantime not been entirely 



negligent of the living plants. I am always vividly interested in the oaks from the south of Europe 



and I have begun the publication ofmy studies on this subject in the Bulletin ofour Soctete 



botanique et horticole de Provence. I will have the honor of sending you a reprint of this small 



work 1 . 



I have arrived at the conviction that hybridization contributes in great part to the birth and 

 permanence ofcertain ambiguous f amilies which link up everywhere with similar species with 

 which they are in contact in the same region. The influence of non-familiar pollen will nearly 

 always affect the female Organs of a species living side by side with another. The hybrid f amilies 

 once produced, will then in turn perpetuate themselves with the influence of pollination ofthe 

 same type and will become more or less mixed with diverse degrees of crossing. Our Quercus 

 Auzendi Gren. et Godr. (Auzandri-DeCandolle SGE) is certainly formed by a combination of 

 hybrid types among which are the Quercus Hex and coccifera. 



The Quercus pedunculata and pubescens have as intermediary the Quercus apennina. Ten. I 

 have received from Portugal types which are suspected to be hybrids which have rejoined the 

 Quercus lusitaria 2 and pedunculata , which grow together in the north ofthat region. I think in 

 America that would be the same. Your observations on oaks ofthat region have given similar 

 results, it seems to me. 



Please, daer Sir, receive my thanks and expressions ofmy sentimental affection. 



Yours, 

 M.deSaporta (signed) 



Transl.3/26/96 Manfred Thurmann 

 corr.by Eliasson 4/24/96. 



1 This reprint is in the Trelease catalogue.lt can no longer be found. A new reprint has been 

 ordered.SGE 



2 Not found in floras.SGE 



