226 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



If they have been true, these two species certainly pass into one 

 in my garden. Their seed-bearing is most profuse. I men- 

 tion this incidentally, because Darwin, in his work on "Plants 

 under Cultivation," says that Linum flavum never ripens seed 

 in English gardens. Scilla nutans and the Spanish Squills, 

 S. campanulata and its close allies, seed together and produce 

 intermediate forms which cannot be distinguished. Malva 

 moschata seems to mix indiscriminately with M. alcea, and the 

 plants are all quite fertile. 



Geranium argenteum and G. cinereum are produced indif- 

 ferently from one another's seed. There are three very fine 

 species of Inula, named respectively I. Hookeri, I. glandulosa, 

 and I. grandiflora. The first and second were distinct when 

 they first came to my garden, but seed of the first has pro- 

 duced an intermediate series joining all three. Another set of 

 plants which I find run together when grown from seed collected 

 in my garden is the Lent Eoses, Helleborus orientalis and five 

 or six other species named and described by E. Boissier in 

 his " Flora Orientalis." The late Herr Eegel, of St. Peters- 

 burg, found the same result, and proposed to join all these 

 species into one ; but each is said to be constant in its native 

 home. 



I have mentioned only a few out of many cases where plants 

 of the same genus seem to hybridise spontaneously and habitu- 

 ally when grown together. These cases must be distinguished 

 from hybrids artificially produced from selected parents. 



But lest it should be supposed that such crosses as I have 

 enumerated are the universal rule amongst nearly allied plants, 

 I will tell of cases where plants seemingly very nearly related 

 remain quite constant from seed, though flowering every year 

 side by side, simultaneously. 



Take as a contrast the two genera Narcissus and Crocus. In 

 the first every species seems ready to hybridise with every other. 

 In the second, though seedlings come up and flower by thou- 

 sands from different species growing together in the same clump, 

 I have never seen a hybrid. No hybrids ever come in my garden 

 from Anemone, though some of the species, such as A. nemorosa 

 and A. japonica, vary much within themselves. I raise thou- 

 sands of Anemone from the seed of my garden every year. A. 

 hortensis never mixes with A. coronaria ; A. blanda never with 



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