38 On the Production of Hybrid Vegetables. 



veyed, as seems to be the case, by blending the pollen of 

 different sorts, the variety of produce may be almost incal- 

 culable. 



I mentioned in a former communication,* that I had ob- 

 tained a mule between Crinum Capense and Pancratium dis- 

 tichum ; but I have since looked upon the plant with great 

 suspicion, because I have never before or since succeeded 

 in intermingling species of these two genera, which I consi- 

 dered fundamentally distinct, according to my own division 



important point in the natural history of the formation of all living things, and, 

 as far as I know, heretofore only observed amongst birds, 



®> s 



/ 2 3 



No. 1 . of the above figures represents a section of the mule seed of Crinum 

 Capense, wanting the internal germ or embryo ; No. 2, represents the natural 

 seed of Crinum defixum cut open, to shew the position and form of the germ, and 

 No. 3, is the figure of the germ taken out of the seed. I may take this opportunity 

 of mentioning, that seeds of Crinums, especially the African Crinum giganteum,f 

 though large and firm when gathered, become soon after soft and mouldy in the 

 driest atmosphere. I have discovered that this circumstance was owing to their 

 having been insufficiently ripened, and have stopped the progress of the decay, 

 either by laying them in the shade upon moist earth, or on a pot of moist sand 

 upon the flue, covering them for a time with a glass, by which means I at last 

 succeeded in obtaining a seedling from Crinum giganteum. 



* Horticultural Transactions, Vol. III. page 196. 



f Botanist's Repository/ Plate 169. Amaryllis ornata /3. of the Botanical 

 Magazine, Plate 923*. 



