336 
ON CROSSES AND 
limited, my general views have been fully verified, and my 
anticipations confirmed in a manner which I was scarcely san- 
guine enough to have expected. Soon after the publication 
of that communication to the Society, I was accosted by 
more than one botanist in the words, “ I do not thank you 
for your mules,” and other expressions of like import, under 
an impression that the intermixture of species which had 
been commenced, and was earnestly recommended to culti- 
vators, would confuse the labours of botanists, and force them 
to work their way through a wilderness of uncertainty ; 
whereas it was evident to myself, that it would on the con- 
trary afford a test whereby the accuracy of their distinctions 
might be more satisfactorily investigated, many of the errors 
of their system eradicated, and its details established upon a 
more solid foundation, and less upon the judgment or caprice 
of individuals. The alarm, which some botanists had taken 
inconsiderately, appears to have subsided, and admissions 
have been already made by some of the most distinguished, 
which, if the consequences that flow from them are considered 
without prejudice, must lead to much more extensive avowals, 
and a final assent to the principle of my statements concerning 
specific and generic distinctions. A number of attempts had 
been made by the President of the Horticultural Society to 
produce new varieties of fruit,* by impregnating the flowers 
with the pollen of other individuals, and the success of his 
proceedings was communicated to the public, both by his let- 
ters to the Society, and by the more substantial production 
of the fruits he had raised ; but it must be evident, that less 
could be expected in the raising of new fruit-bearing plants 
by intermixture, because the hybridising process is to a cer- 
tain degree inimical to fertility in the offspring; and that 
the flower-garden was more likely to be adorned, than the 
kitchen-garden replenished, by the intermixture of species. 
The President adopted in his writings a principle or dogma, 
which seemed to be then much relied upon by botanists, that 
the production of a fertile cross was proof direct that the two 
parents were of the same species, and he assumed as a conse- 
quence, that a sterile offspring was nearly conclusive evidence 
that they were of different species ; and this dictnm was ad- 
vanced without suggesting any alteration in the definition of 
* There is a paper in the Philos. Transact, concerning the production of 
apples, by crossing the pollen, by Benj. Cooke. 
