206 THE FLORIST AND 
HYBRIDS. 
The crosses which appeared on the Exhibition tables of the Horticultural 
Society last month, excited unusual attention, especially the beautiful Prin- 
cess Royal Rhododendron from Messrs. Veitch. So many other striking 
results of muling are also now beginning to appear in gardens, that the 
process is likely to be carried on with more activity than ever. It therefore 
seems to be worth while to consider whether recent examples throw any 
new light upon the result that the operator has a right to anticipate from 
his experiments. 
Gr^rtner assures us that, in the course of his very numerous and much 
varied experiments, he found that no certain result can be anticipated. The 
late Dean of Manchester and others have believed, on the contrary, that upon 
the whole the properties of the male plant will be most conspicuous in the 
hybrid. To test the value of these opinions, we take the following eight 
cases in which the history of the mule is known with certainty. For the 
sake of brevity we venture here to employ the signs of sexes in use among 
botanists, viz : cj for the male, and 9 for the female : — 
1. Mule. Anemone vitif olio-japonic a. ^ 
c? Anemone vitifolia ; $ An. japonica. 
Result. Flowers and hardiness of d ; color intermediate. A very 
valuable variety. 
2. Mule. Anemone japonico-vitifolia.'^ 
d' Anemone japonica ; ? A. vitifolia. 
Result. Tenderness and ragged flower of c?. A worthless variety, 
no longer cultivated. 
3. Mule. Oereus speeiosissimo-crenatus.'^ 
d Cereus speciossissimus ; ? C. crenatus. 
Result. Color of c? ; habit nearly of 9. 
4. Mule. Aquilegia fragranti-ealifornioa.^ 
d Aquilegia fragrans ; <5 A. californica. 
Result. Habit and flower of 9 ; color intermediate. 
* N. B. Those marked -with an asterisk -were raised in the Garden of the Horticultural So- 
ciety, ty Mr. tjeorge Gordon. 
