CROSSING OR HYBRIDISING. 



319 



many puppies. But if the fact were positively- 

 true, how is it to be proved that the constitution 

 and frame may not have undergone such changes 

 in the diversification as to prevent intermixture ? 

 If I can show that in one genus of plants cross- 

 breeding is not only easy, but more easily ob- 

 tained than fertility by the plants' own pollen, 

 and that in others, so closely allied to it as to 

 make it a question whether they are not sections 

 of one genus, cross-breeding cannot be effected 

 generally, and in no case easily ; that in some 

 genera of plants many or all the cross-bred varie- 

 ties are fertile, and in others nearly allied thereto, 

 all, or almost all, are sterile, — the assertion that 

 the races of canis or dog must have had one 

 origin because their crossed produce is fertile, 

 and the races of fells, from the cat to the tiger, 

 must have had separate origin because their 

 crossed produce is sterile (supposing the fact to 

 be true, which is not ascertained), must fall to 

 the ground. The only thing certain is, that we 

 are ignorant of the origin of races, that God 

 has revealed nothing to us on the subject ; and 

 that we may amuse ourselves with speculating 

 thereon, but we cannot obtain negative proof- 

 that is, proof that two creatures or vegetables 

 of the same family did not descend from one 

 source. But we can prove the affirmative, and 

 that is the use of hybridising experiments, which 

 I have invariably suggested ; for if I can pro- 

 duce a fertile offspring between two plants that 

 botanists have reckoned fundamentally distinct, 

 I consider that I have shown them to be one 

 kind; and indeed I am inclined to think that, 

 if a well-formed and healthy offspring proceeds 

 at all from their union, it would be rash to hold 

 them of distinct origin. We see every day the 

 wide range of seminal diversities in our gardens. 

 We have known the dahlia, from a poor single 

 dull-coloured flower, break into superior forms 

 and brilliant colours ; we have seen a carnation, 

 by the reduplication of its calyx, acquire almost 

 the appearance of an ear of wheat, and look like 

 a glumaceous plant ; we have seen hollyhocks 

 in their generations branch into a variety of 

 colours, which are reproduced by the several de- 

 scendants with tolerable certainty. We cannot, 

 therefore, say that the order to multiply after 

 their kind meant that the produce should be 

 precisely similar to the original type ; and if 

 the type was allowed to reproduce itself with 

 variation, who can pretend to say how much 

 variation the Almighty allowed ? Who can say 

 that His glorious scheme for peopling and cloth- 

 ing the earth was not the creation of a certain 

 number of original animals and vegetables, pre- 

 destined by Him, in their reproduction, to exhibit 

 certain variations which should hereafter become 

 fixed characters, as well as those variations which 

 even now frequently arise, and are nearly fixed 

 characters, but not absolutely so, and those 

 which are more variable, and very subject to re- 

 lapse in reproduction ?" — Jour, ofllort. Soc. 



For the following remarks on this very in- 

 teresting subject we are indebted to our excel- 

 lent friend Isaac Anderson, Esq., S.S.C., one of 

 the most scientific, energetic, and successful 

 hybridisers of the present day : — 



" To go fully into the theory and practice of 



hybridising, a volume might be devoted to the 

 subject, and still leave it unexhausted. To start 

 with the beginning would be to start with crea- 

 tion itself — in fact, nature, as conjectured by 

 Linnseus, was occupied by but few original 

 types of the innumerable vegetable forms which 

 have been transmitted to us. How these few 

 first types, if that great authority was right in 

 that belief, have become varied and multiplied, 

 from classes to tribes, from tribes to genera, and 

 from genera to species and endless varieties, 

 belongs to those mysteries of Divine agency 

 which set all inquiry at nought, and upon which 

 it were equally unprofitable and presumptuous 

 at the present time to speculate. For who, in 

 treating of such a science, dare invade a field 

 where the Omnipotent invoked no aid from man 

 — ere yet, indeed, mam was ; while the sun and 

 skyey influences, and the whole host of insecti- 

 vorous races, now extinct, were perhaps but parts 

 of the agencies and instrumentalities by which, 



' With herbs, and plants, and fruitful trees, 

 The new-formed globe He crowned, ' 



and made it fit for man's use and habitation ? 

 Who can speculate now on those atmospheric pro- 

 perties, 'instinct with life, 5 under whose influence 

 man grew and increased in strength, till the span 

 of his existence extended to near a thousand 

 years — when there were giants on the earth — ■ 



' When man was in stature as tow'rs in our time, 

 The first-born of Nature, and, like her, sublime ? ' 



A life-giving and life-sustaining Spirit breathed 

 the will, and effected the purposes of the Cre- 

 ator. Perhaps a larger portion and a more 

 genial form of electricity than now obtains, may 

 have imparted a principle of higher vitality to 

 the air, and through that medium have commu- 

 nicated a stronger impulse, and more enduring 

 energies, to both animal and vegetable life. This 

 may or may not have been ; certaiD it is that a 

 change has taken place. Since the Deluge, the 

 vital forces have been greatly weakened. Man, 

 since then, has scarce lived a tithe of his former 

 term ; and the vast exhumations of fossil flora 

 bespeak an exuberance and variety of vegetation, 

 in temperate zones, that have no parallel at the 

 present day even in tropical regions. 



" Why do we now see natural families with 

 genera whose affinities are indisputable, and yet 

 in their extreme links so dissimilar ? Perhaps 

 no one of the larger family of plants has its in- 

 termediate connections better filled up than the 

 Ericaceae, yet how many links are awanting in 

 the chain between the Rhododendron arboreum 

 of India, of 40 feet high, and the Chamceledon 

 (Azalea) procumbens of our own Highland 

 mountains, of only 4 inches, or some of the 

 smaller heaths ! Though all allied, how many 

 links are there between the various tribes, and 

 even genera, of this most interesting family; e. g., 

 between the Vacciniece and the Pyrolece as separ- 

 ate tribes, or between" the Rhododendron and 

 the Menziesia, as separate genera. The scarcely- 

 known elevated plateaus and ridges of the 

 Andes have already yielded up some kindred 

 races in the Bejaria and Thibaudia ; and who 

 can tell if, when better explored, many more 

 links awanting may not be supplied ? Travel- 



