MR. A. MURRAY ON MIMETIC ANALOGY. 
107 
of the most peculiarly constituted, as it is one of the most pecu- 
liarly featured of all the Ehododendron tribe, having its rugose 
leaves densely 'pubescent on the upper while it is perfectly shaggy 
with tomentum on the under side, every stem being clothed with 
the same tomentum, I have another most singular peculiarity to 
note in regard to it, namely that while it will cross other species 
it will take on a cross from none, — that is to say, while it has been 
repeatedly made the male^ it has never with me, though I have 
tried it often, nor with any other that I have heard of, sub- 
mitted to become the female parent, I have crossed it repeatedly 
on ciliatum^ one of the minor forms, too, of Dr. Hooker's Hima- 
layian species. It has been crossed, too, on R.formosum in this 
neighbourhood, I believe, in the Stanwell Nursery : but I never 
could get it to take on any cross whatever. B. Nuttalli behaved, 
with me, in the same manner ; it would cross but not be crossed ; 
but I did not persevere with it as I did with B. Edgworthii. Now 
I do not assert absolutely that B. EdgwortJiii, in the numerous 
tribe of which it is a member, may not be hybridized with some 
other of its kindred, but I could never get it to reciprocate a 
cross. And this remarkable circumstance of non-reciprocity has 
perplexed and defied me in innumerable instances throughout my 
long experience in these pursuits. It occurred to me that the 
pollen of larger forms might be of larger grains, and so might not 
pass through the necessarily small ducts of the styles of smaller 
species ; yet B. ciliatum, a tiny species of 1 foot high, was crossed 
freely by B. Edgworthii, as I have just noticed, a species of 6 feet 
high. I even crossed this latter species on a pure Indian Azalea, 
though, by pulling the seed-pod before it was ripe, I raised no 
seeds of this latter cross. 
In these hasty observations I merely wish to direct attention 
to such instances of imperfect Jiylridity in certain species, and the 
non-reciprocity in others, as I have noticed, in the hope of perhaps 
drawing out from others their experiences in such matters, which 
I humbly think are not unworthy the consideration of the Scientific 
Committee. 
XII. On Mimetic Analogy. By A. Murray, Esq., F.L.S. 
Some time since I had occasion to study with care, for the pur- 
poses of a work on which I am engaged, the phenomena of mimetic 
