18 
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
and seed, or whether they were sports only, and owing to a 
diseased condition of the plant. 
To ascertain for my own satisfaction the truth iipon these points, 
as well as with the object of obtaining, if possible, some informa- 
tion regarding the relative powers the respective parents exert over 
their progeny, I commenced a series of experiments upon the 
scarlet section of the Pelargonium, employing varieties of the most 
opposite and varied character, and crossing them in every conceivable 
way. 
I conducted these experiments, too, with the utmost possible care 
and minuteness of detail, both as regards the methods I adopted for 
preventing self or insect fertilisation, to ensure the fertilisation 
being effected by the desired pollen only ; and as regards the keep- 
ing an exact register of every cross, as well as a record of their 
results. 
Ey this means I soon arrived at a satisfactory conclusion as 
regards the points at issue respecting the transmission of variegation 
of the foliage by fertilisation, from the fact of its being manifested 
to a greater or less degree, in as large a proportion as from 50 to 60 
per cent, of the offspring, where the green zonal had been fertilised 
by the pollen of the variegated. I also obtained some valuable in- 
formation indicative of the powers the respective parents exert upon 
various other points in connection with the transmission and modifi- 
cation of the foliage and habit of the plant, as well as of the 
colour and form of the flower. 
Prom the information thus derived, I am of opinion that by 
careful and persistent fertilisation, under the guidance of the ob- 
servation of results, it is possible to produce almost any modifica- 
tion in the character and habit of our plants, or variety of colour 
and form in our flowers, we might desire. Por I am satisfied that 
by these means we possess a much greater power of moulding our 
flowers in accordance with preconceived design than is generally 
supposed ; and, moreover, I think it possible that ultimately some 
insight may be obtained into the working of the laws that govern 
procreation in the vegetable kingdom, and that produce variation 
in our fruits and flowers. 
The result of my experience derived from these experiments, 
as regards the relative influence of the parents, certainly tends in 
the reverse direction to my previous ideas, which were derived from 
books, from which I gleaned that the form of the flower and con- 
stitution and habit of the plant were inherited from its mother, 
whilst the colour of the flower ouly was supposed to be conveyed 
