36 On the production of Hybrid Vegetables. 



the stigma. On my return home the day after the last flower 

 had been touched with the dust of C. defixum, having an 

 opportunity of using the pollen of C. speciosissimum, I 

 superadded it on the stigma of the last blown flower, which 

 alone was still fresh. The three flowers produced seed ; and 

 the result is, that those of the first pod, which were impreg- 

 nated with C. brevifolium, have produced plants quite dis- 

 tinct, but like to each other, with bright green leaves, deeply 

 channelled quite to their point ; whereas natural seedlings of 

 C. Capense have their leaves glaucous, and flat on the inner 

 side, without any channel. The second pod contained only 

 four large seeds, of which one has not yet vegetated, and per- 

 haps will be found to contain no germ ; the other three seeds 

 produced plants, of which two are bright green, so roundly 

 channelled near the base, as almost to form a hollow cylinder 

 by the meeting of their margins, but they become flat near 

 their points, and are undoubtedly the hybrid offspring of 

 C. defixum ; but the third plant has flat glaucous leaves, and 

 appears to be a natural C. Capense, produced in the same 

 capsule by some particle of the dust that had escaped : as the 

 pods of Crinum become one-celled before maturity, it could 

 not be ascertained whether these seeds were formed in different 

 cells originally or not. The last capsule has produced three 

 green seedlings, channelled near the base only, but much less 

 so than the former ; also five or six very slender and weakly 

 plants with flat green leaves ; and one vigorous plant, with 

 leaves coming nearer to the natural appearance of C. Capense. 

 It is therefore pretty evident that different sorts of dust can 

 act upon one capsule.* 



* February 18, 1820. The mule Crinums raised last September, having been 



