By the Hon. and Rev. William Herbert. 25 



watered) the pods fell off; but they had remained on long 

 enough to shew that the gerrnen had been apparently fer- 

 tilized; those to whose stigma the dust had not been applied, 

 having withered long before. From this it should seem 

 that the ovarium is not defective in that mule, and that it 

 would probably be fertile in America. My own mule 

 Rhododendrons have pollen, though not abundant, and I 

 think I should have obtained seed from them this year, if 

 their roots had not been injured by two much water in 

 the pots. 



I suspect that the gerrnen is very speedily fertilized 

 when the dust has touched the stigma ; but 1 doubt whe- 

 ther, after being fecundated, it is closed against any further 

 impression. I have a pot full of seedlings from a pod of 

 Crinurn Capense, of which the stigma was touched first with 

 the dust of C. erubescens, and several days after with that of 

 C. scaberrimum ; and by their present appearance I think 

 they are intermediate between the mules produced by the 

 dust of either separately ; but it is impossible yet to speak 

 with confidence. Mr. Knight has assured me that by 

 touching the stigma of a smooth Cabbage with the dusts 

 of a curled and of a red Cabbage, he had given both the curl 

 and the red colour to the seedlings ; but I am uncertain 

 whether both dusts were applied at the same time. It would 

 be very desirable to ascertain by experiments how long 

 after the stigma had been touched with pollen, a second im- 

 pression could be given. The summer before last I wished to 

 try the possibility of crossing a plant of Pancratium litorale 

 which had twenty-one buds on a stem, with Crinurn * Nerine, 



* See Botanical Magazine, 2113, and 2124. 

 VOL. IV. E 



