SPECIES, VARIETIES, AND HYBRIDS. 
503 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
There are several other Kalmias, but they 
are altogether inferior in every respect ; the 
most that can be said of any one of them is, 
that it is pretty for a few days, and then mean 
and untidy the rest of the year. Kalmia 
latifolia is broad -leaved, and of this we have 
spoken ; the others are K. angustifolia, K. 
glauca, and K. hirsuta ; they are all North 
American, and, as regards cultivation, may 
be treated alike ; but, compared with K. lati- 
folia, the others are very, very inferior. The 
plant may be had already grown at the prin- 
cipal nurseries; indeed there are some few nur- 
series in the neighbourhood of Knap Hill and 
Bagshot, where this class of plants is most ex- 
tensively and almost exclusively grown. The 
places being prepared for the reception of the 
plants, they may be planted out at nearly any 
time of the year ; but autumn, as soon as the 
summer growth is perfected, is the best time 
for their removal. They are beautiful plants 
for forcing, merely requiring to be potted up 
in the end of the summer, and placed at once in 
the greenhouse, where their flower buds will 
begin to swell very soon. If they are wanted 
to bloom earlier than the greenhouse will 
bring them, give them at first 40° by night and 
45° by day, which, after a week, maybe raised 
to 50°, and lastly, to 55° by day. 
SPECIES, VARIETIES, AND HYBRIDS. 
We have already given our opinion on the 
folly of calling foreign plants distinct species, 
when they are evidently only varieties. Any 
subject, no matter what, if it comes from 
abroad, and varies a little in appearance from 
those we possess already, is at once set down 
as a distinct species, whereas nine out of ten 
prove to be only varieties. The late T. A. 
Knight, Esq. was of opinion that if two distinct 
species could be got to fertilize each other 
and produce offspring, that offspring would 
be a mule, and incapable of bearing seed. 
He says, in a paper on this subject read to 
the Horticultural Society : — 
" Much difference of opinion appears to 
exist between my friend, the Hon. and Rev. 
W. Herbert, and myself, relatively to the 
production of Hybrid plants; he supposing that 
many originally distinct species are capable of 
breeding together, without producing mules 
(that is, without producing plants incapable 
of affording offspring), and I considering the 
fact of two supposed species having bred to- 
gether, without producing mules, to be evi- 
dence of the original specific identity of the 
two. Our difference of opinion is, however, 
I believe, apparently much greater than it 
really is : for I readily concede to Mr. Herbert, 
that great numbers, perhaps more than half 
of the species enumerated by botanical wri- 
ters, may be made to breed together, with 
greater or less degrees of facility : but upon 
what sufficient evidence the originally specific 
diversity of these rests, I have never been 
able to obtain anything like satisfactory infor- 
mation ; and I cannot by any means admit 
that phrnts ought to be considered oforiain- 
ally distinct species, merely because they 
happen to be found to have assumed somewhat 
different forms or colours in an uncultivated 
state. The Genus Prunus contains the P. 
Armeniaca, P. Cerasus, P. domestica, P. 
insititia, P. spinosa, P. sibirica, and many 
others. Of these, I feel perfectly confident 
that no art will ever obtain offspring (not 
being mules) between the Prunus Armeniaca, 
P. Cerasus, and P. domestica : but I do not 
entertain much doubt of being able to obtain 
an endless variety of perfect offspring be- 
tween the P. domestica, P. insititia, and P. 
spinosa ; and still less doubt of obtaining 
abundant variety of offspring from the P. Ar- 
meniaca and P. sibirica. The former, the 
common Apricot,* is found, according to 
M. Regnier (fur a translation of whose ac- 
count we are indebted to Mr. Salisbury), f 
in a wild state in the Oases of Africa. It is 
there a rich and sweet fruit, of a yellow 
colour. The fruit of the P. sibirica, seeds 
of which came to me from Dr. Fischer of 
Gorinki, is, on the contrary, I understand, 
black, very acid, and of small size : but never- 
theless, if these apparently distinct species 
will breed together, and I confidently expect 
they will, without giving existence to mule 
plants, I shall not hesitate to pronounce these 
plants of one and the same species ; as I have 
clone relatively to the Scarlet, the Pine, and 
Chili strawberries. Botanists may never- 
theless, if they please, continue to call these 
transmutable plants, ' species ; ' but if they 
do so, I think they should find some other 
term for such species as are not transmutable; 
and which will either not breed together at all, 
or which, breeding together, give existence to 
mule plants. I do not, however, feel any 
anxiety or wish to defend my own hypothe- 
tical opinions upon this subject." 
* The early period at which the Apricot unfolds its 
flowers leads me to believe it to be a native of a cold 
climate : and I suspect the French word Abricot, the 
English Apricock, and the African Berrikokka, to 
have been alike derived from the Latia word Pras- 
cocia, which the Romans (there is every reason to be- 
lieve) pronounced Praikokia, and which was the term 
applied to early varieties of peaches, which probably 
included tbe Apricot. The Greeks also wrote the 
Latin word, as I suppose the Romans to have pro, 
nounced it, UpaKOKia. — Hardoniris Edition of Pliny, 
Lib. 15. Sec. xi. 
f Horticultural Transactions, vol. iii. A pp. p. 23. 
