352 
ON CROSSES AND 
metel by laevis all succeeded ; by Hyoscyamus failed ; by 
Nicot. macoph. failed. Glaucium by Papaver failed. I 
make no doubt that when the seeds vegetated, the supposed 
crosses of improbable origin manifested themselves to be na- 
tural seedlings of the mother plant, or produced by the in- 
trusion of some kindred pollen. Kolreuter raised mules 
(Act. Ac. Pet. 1780) between Lobelia siphylitica and Cardi- 
nalis both ways. He found them fertile by the pollen of 
either parent, and their pollen fertilized the parents, but he 
obtained no seed from the mule by its own pollen. Lobelia 
speciosa, or more properly Lowii, Bot. Reg. 17. 1455, was 
found in a border where siphylitica and fulgensgrew; it was 
a mule from siphylitica, which seeds freely. That mule, 
intermediate and purple-flowered like those of Kolreuter, 
seeded abundantly with me standing in a border between the 
two parents, but the seedlings with one or two exceptions, did 
not approximate to either, but reproduced the mule with some 
variability of colour. Dr. Wiegman, in a tract published in 
the German language, has given an account of some interest- 
ing experiments. By sowing Allium porrum and Cepa in 
one bed, and tying the flower-stems together, he obtained 
plants intermediate between the leek and onion, which were 
fertile. By tying together Vicia faba hortensis (the garden 
bean) and Vicia sativa (the common vetch), he obtained cross- 
bred seed; the seedlings from the bean had flowers more 
purple, smaller pods and .seeds, which when sown again, 
yielded plants that appeared to him not distinguishable from 
what he calls the known red-seeded variety. Those from the 
vetch shewed also a difference of blossom. In 1823 he sowed 
Pisum sativum (the field pea) and Vicia sativa (the common 
vetch) together ; the seedlings showed a departure from the 
natural colour, and yielded grey seeds. From the twining 
Phaseolus vulgaris albus, and Phaseolus nanus which does 
not twine, he obtained crosses ; some seedlings of the latter 
twining, and of the former bent and crooked, but not twining. 
From Vicia sativa (the common vetch) and ervum lens (the 
lentil) he also obtained a fertile cross. If these facts are 
correct, it is clear that the closely allied genera Faba, pisum, 
vicia, and ervum cannot be upheld as distinct ; but, although 
it is a very common practice in England to sow peas and 
tares mixed with beans, I have questioned many intelligent 
farmers on the subject, and not one had ever heard of any 
adulteration in the seed in consequence of the mixed culti- 
