HYBRID INTERMIXTURES. 
353 
vation, which, according to Dr. Wiegman’s statement, ought 
to be of constant occurrence in such cases. On the other 
hand, I have seen cultivated in Yorkshire a plant having the 
growth of a vigorous field pea(Pisum), which produces seeds 
that no man would hesitate to call beans, and which when 
boiled have, I understand, more the flavour of beans than 
of peas ; and the plant, though very fertile, has every ap- 
pearance of being a mixed production between the two. The 
most extraordinary mule, however, that is asserted to have 
been produced on the Continent, is a cross between the cab- 
bage and horse-radish, which Monsieur Sageret reports that 
he has obtained, and that it has produced seed-pods, some of 
which resemble the short pod orsilicula of the Cochlearia or 
horse-radish, and some the long pod or siliqua of the Brassica 
or cabbage. Strange it is, that asserting such a result, he 
appears quite unaware of its importance, and does not state 
whether those singular and various pods contained seeds or 
proved abortive. He does not even state whether the plants 
so obtained were annual, like the cabbage, or perennial, like 
the horse-radish, nor does he describe them. I must there- 
fore, without any offence to him, be allowed to consider the 
actual generation of such a mule questionable, till the mule 
plants are produced before the public, so that their conforma- 
tion may be examined to see whether it is agreeable to their 
supposed origin, or at least their peculiarities accurately de- 
tailed, and the impossibility of a mistake rendered manifest. I 
have, however, always considered the separation of siliquosae 
and siliculosae to be very unsatisfactory, and have entertained 
great doubts of the established distinctions amongst Cruciferae. 
In consequence of M. Sageret’s statement, I tried in 1835 to 
impregnate a plant of Brassica with the horse-radish, and 
with the pollen of two or three other genera of Cruciferse ; 
but I did not obtain a single seed from at least fifty flowers, 
on which the experiments were tried, all other flowers being 
cut off from the plant. I beg to be understood as not deny- 
ing M. Sageret’s assertion, but requiring better proof of the 
accuracy of a fact so important to science, in which he may 
be mistaken, and more detailed particulars, and especially 
the production of the plants ; and I invite M. Sageret to com- 
municate one of them to the Horticultural Society of London, 
that opportunities may be afforded of examining it carefully. 
Experiments have also been made on the Continent 
to establish within what limits the cucurbitaceous plants 
2 A 
