20 On the Production of Hybrid Vegetables. 



under the name of Viola amcena, in Weardale, a few miles 

 from the last named place. The seeds gathered in Teesdale 

 from the dark purple Hearts-ease once produced a dirty pur- 

 ple and yellow flower in my garden. These are therefore 

 only local varieties, which by their uniformity in their na- 

 tural abodes have misled the Botanist. 



I believe the Orange, Citron, Lime, Lemon, and Shad- 

 dock, to be varieties of one plant. I do not, however, consi- 

 der that Mr. Knight's experiment* has proved the Almond 

 and the Peach to be one species. The Peach is extremely 

 similar to the Almond, with the exception of the sweet 

 pulp, which may be, very probably , the effect of cultivation; 

 and, if any amelioration of the pulp could be produced in 

 seedling Almonds, I should incline to think that a long course 

 of cultivation might have improved the Almond into a Peach. 

 But the production of a fruit resembling a Peach, from an 

 impregnation of the Almond with a plant so very similar, 

 only shews that in an intermixture between two plants, which 

 have such close affinity, the type of the male (as is fre- 

 quently the case) has been very conspicuous ; and this, 

 even if the Peach had been known to have grown wild, with a 

 sweet pulp, before the deluge, would not have surprised me. 



The science of the Botanist, at the best, is very unstable, 

 because it is entirely a science of conjecture, liable, at all 

 times, to be overset by the test of cultivation. He carefully 

 observes in plants the features that are least liable to varia- 

 tion ; and by their means is enabled to subdivide the 

 Classes, Genera, and Species of vegetables ; but experience 

 sometimes shews that the features, on which he relies, are 

 * Horticultural Transactions, Vol. III. page 1. 



