WICI11JRA OK HYBRIDS. 



81 



plants is quite like that of hybrids, and all the forms are found in 

 it which have before been adduced as phenomena in the pollen of 

 hybrid willows. Most cultivated varieties of Primula auricula, 

 Hyacinthus orientalis, Tulipa Gesneriana, Solarium tuberosum, 

 JSrassica oleracea, Mathiola incana, Antirrhinum majtcs, Cineraria 

 cruenta, and Verbenas have very strikingly irregular pollen. In 

 a white variety of Cineraria cruenta a tetrahedric confluence of 

 the pollen-grains was found like that in 8. (cinerea + incana). 

 Koelreuter therefore says rightly, " The nature of plants and 

 beasts is in a certain degree like that of hybrids, as soon as in any 

 way they are removed from that destination for which they are 

 especially fitted." Where culture and hybridizing concur, the 

 consequences of disaccommodation are naturally quicker and more 

 extensive than where only one of these is at work. Thus we 

 find in the Fancy Pelargoniums, the Giant Pansies, the Calceo- 

 larias, and the Fuchsias, variability and multiformity of pollen in 

 the highest degree. All these plants have irregular pollen, and in 

 many individuals to a surprising extent. It is probable, though 

 it has not yet been proved, that, as in hybrids, irregularity of 

 pollen in cultivated plants favours variability. If gardeners, in 

 the raising new varieties, would have recourse to the microscope, 

 and let those individuals remain for seed which have the most 

 irregular pollen, or if they would use the most irregular pollen in 

 artificial impregnation, they would in all probability materially 

 expedite the accomplishment of their wishes. 



At all events this remarkable position arises from our discus- 

 sion, that imperfect accommodation gives to an organism an in- 

 creased tendency to form varieties. Does, then, the same law 

 prevail in nature ? Plants are subject to the most different local 

 and climatic conditions. Organisms which at any former time 

 were adapted to climate and locality, must, when change of con- 

 dition takes place, gradually cease to be accommodated. Had 

 they in this state of transition possessed only the degree of 

 variability which the greater number of wild plants now exhibit, 

 their persistence would have been placed in question. If varia- 

 bility, however, increased with increasing disaccommodation, there 

 might well be one among the many varieties which, suited to the 

 new condition, would have full scope, while the other less adapted 

 forms would be displaced, whether change in combination with 

 "natural selection" be the agent, or whether matter endowed 

 with life, in consequence of an inherent necessity, accommodates 

 itself to a law of conformity suited to outward circumstances. 



VOL. I. G 



