CHAP. VIII. 
FERTILISATION. 
.349 
granates, of Roses and Black Currants, and the like, may, 
therefore be set down to pure invention. 
It is, nevertheless, apparently true, that higeners, that is to 
say, mules between different genera, have in some few cases 
been artificially obtained. Kblreuter obtained such between 
Malvaceous plants; Gaertner, between Daturas and Henbane 
and Tobacco; Wiegman, between a Garden Bean and a Lentil; 
and there are other well-attested cases. But all such produc- 
tions were as short-lived and sickly as they were monstrous. 
As this power of creating mule plants fertile for two 
or three generations incontestably exists, it is not to be 
wondered at, that in wild nature hybrid varieties should be 
far from uncommon. Amono: the most remarkable cases 
are, the Cistus Ledon, constantly produced between C. mons- 
pessulanus and laurifolius; and Cistus longifolius, between 
C. monspessulanus and populifolius ; in the wood of Font- 
froide, near Narbonne, mentioned by Bentham. The same 
acute botanist ascertained' that Saxifraga luteopurpurea of 
Lapeyrouse, and S. ambigua of De Candolle, are only wild 
accidental hybrids between S. aretioides and calyciflora : 
they are only found where the two parents grow together ; 
but there they form a suite of intermediate states between 
the two. Gentians, having a similar origin, have also been 
remarked upon the mountains of Europe; and altogether 
about forty cases of wild reputed species of the genera Ra- 
nunculus, Anemone, Hypericum, Scleranthus, Drosera, Po- 
tentilla, Geum, Medicago, Galium, Centaurea, Stachys, Rhi- 
nanthus. Digitalis, Verbascum, Gentiana, Mentha, Quercus, 
Salix, and Narcissus, have been collected by Schiede, Lasch, 
and De Candolle ; to which far too many may be added from 
the works of species-making botanists. It is impossible not 
to believe that a great proportion of the reputed species of 
Rosa, Rubus, and other intricate genera, have had a hybrid 
origin. 
In a practical point of view, I am inclined to believe that 
the power of obtaining mule varieties by art is one of the 
most important means that man possesses of modifying the 
works of nature, and of rendering them better adapted to his 
purposes. In our gardens some of the most beautiful flowers 
