By Mr. John Lindley. 



3;w 



parents to A. rutila and A. equestris, the question, whether 

 they are hybrid productions or natural varieties is brought 

 within the much narrower compass of deciding whether or 

 not A. equestris and A. rutila are specifically distinct from 

 each other. Upon which subject the seedling plants them- 

 selves will offer the best evidence. If they should prove fer- 

 tile it must be inferred that they are natural varieties, and 

 that the technical distinctions by which botanists have divided 

 their parents are unnatural and insufficient ; a conjecture, I 

 apprehend, future experience not unlikely to confirm. But 

 if they should be sterile, they will maintain their claim to 

 hybridity and the distinct origin of their parents may be con- 

 sidered as established. 



Such at least are the inferences which must be drawn, so 

 long as the principles of Kolreuter and other writers who 

 have investigated the subject of vegetable hybridity with the 

 greatest precision, remain unshaken. And I cannot forbear 

 adding, that these are completely confirmed by such instances 

 as have come within my own observation of fertility in plants 

 supposed to be hybrid. 



It will perhaps be urged that the splendid variety of Ama- 

 ryllis obtained* by Mr. Gowen from the impregnation of A. 

 Regince with A. vittata, is a proof that fertile plants may be 

 procured by the intermixture of two distinct species ; and 

 that therefore the test of hybridity above alluded to, is not 

 infallible. But it may be replied, that it is well known that 

 other instances have occurred in which the union of two na- 

 tural species has produced a third stock which was proved to 

 be fertile to the extent of even three generations; but that after 



* See Horticultural Transactions, Vol. iv. page 498. 



