HYBRID INTERMIXTURES. 
347 
plant which he is permitted to create ; for that term may be 
figuratively applied to the introduction into the world of a 
natural form which has probably never before existed in it. 
In constitution the mixed offspring appears to partake of the 
habits of both parents ; that is to say, it will be less hardy 
than the one of its parents which bears the greatest exposure, 
and not so delicate as the other ; but if one of the parents is 
quite hardy and the other not quite able to support our win- 
ters, the probability is that the offspring will support them, 
though it may suffer from a very unusual depression of the 
thermometer or excess of moisture, which would not destroy 
its hardier parent. Such is the case with the beautiful mule 
Rhododendron Altaclarae, of which the mother was a cross 
between Ponticum and Catawbiense, and the father the 
Nepal scarlet arboreum. We now possess a further cross by 
the impregnation of Altaclarae by arboreum, which will pro- 
bably come so near the father in its colour, that if, as ex- 
pected, it should be able to endure our winters, we shall have 
nearly attained the result, which would be otherwise most 
likely impracticable, of acclimating the magnificent Nepal 
plant ; for it does not appear that in reality any plant be- 
comes acclimated under our observation, except by crossing 
with a hardier variety, or by the accidental alteration of con- 
stitution in some particular seedling ; nor that any period of 
time does in fact work an alteration in the constitution of an 
individual plant, so as to make it endure a climate which it 
was originally unable to bear ; and, although we are told 
that laurels were at first kept in hothouses in this country, 
it was not that they were less capable of supporting our sea- 
sons than at present, but that the cultivators had not made 
full trial of their powers of endurance. The notion of Mr. 
Sweet that the roots produced by cuttings are hardier than 
those of seedling plants is probably fanciful, if he meant 
permanently so, which alone would be of importance. They 
may be tougher at the first period of propagation, while the 
seedling is in its infancy, but that, if not permanent, could 
have no effect in acclimating a plant. In truth it is not the 
root that is tougher, but the nucleus or base of the cutting 
from which the roots issue, and in which the life resides, 
which is tougher than in a young seedling at the first. All 
his other experiments only tended to shew that some half- 
hardy plants would live through an English winter in very 
dry and sheltered situations, or during two or three years, 
