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V. On the Production of Hybrid Vegetables ; with the 

 Result of many Experiments made in the Investigation of the 

 Subject. In a Letter to the Secretary By the Hon. and 

 Rev. William Herbert, D. C. L. P. H. S. #c. 



Read December 21, 18] 9- 



My dear Sir, 



It was your wish, that I should address some further com- 

 munications to the Horticultural Society, concerning the 

 production of Hybrid Vegetables. It would, perhaps, have 

 been more advisable, to have waited till points, that are still 

 doubtful, could have Deen accurately investigated ; but, ac- 

 cording to your -request, I will report the progress of my 

 experiments, and explain my ideas on the subject. It opens 

 a wide and interesting field : the vegetable kingdom may 

 certainly be greatly enriched by artificial intermixtures, and 

 I think that new plants may be so formed, which will be 

 capable of reproducing themselves, as distinct generations, 

 by seed, in the same manner as natural species. I am aware 

 of the opinion of our worthy President, who conceives that 

 the production of a tertile offspring, from two plants of spe- 

 cies supposed to be distinct, is in itself a decisive proof, that 

 the parents are really of one species, and that Botanists 

 have been in error concerning them ; or, in other words, that 

 fertility is evidence, that the plant is not really hybrid, but 

 produced by the intermixture of two varieties of one species. 

 I am, however, satisfied, from the progress I *have already 



