370 
ON CROSSES AND 
Chinese do not reckon seedling Camellias confirmed in their 
habit, till they have flowered six or seven seasons without 
becoming less double. I have not found any of mine, thus 
raised several years ago, degenerate from their first appear- 
ance. Of the Chinese, the double white, the buff, the 
fringed white, and, as far as we know, the red variety, called 
imbricata, are the only sorts that never bear anthers. Hav- 
ing cultivated the myrtle-leaved above twenty-five years, I 
never saw that variety bear an anther in my collection, ex- 
cept one season, when all the flowers on even^ plant of the 
kind had them, and they were found in two or three late 
flowers last year ; but the seedlings reared from its pollen, of 
which great expectations were entertained, proved to be the 
worst 1 had ever raised, and it seemed that whatever peculi- 
arity of the season inclined the flowers to deviate from their 
usual double form, and approach nearer to the fertile single- 
flowered original, disposed also the pollen to generate single 
seedlings. I have seen the myrtle-leaved with anthers at 
Mr. Knight’s nursery, though the circumstance has been so 
rare in my own collection ; perhaps it may be connected with 
the more or less luxuriant growth of the plant. 
It is to be lamented that more experiments have not been 
tried to improve the races of agricultural vegetables by 
crossing. I impregnated in 1834 with great care the Swe- 
dish turnip (ruta-baga) with pollen of the white, and another 
branch thereof with that of the red-rooted turnip, which pro- 
duces perhaps a greater tonage than the white, bearing both 
frosts and unfavourable summers better, and thriving in soils 
where the white does not succeed. The seed was sown im- 
mediately, and the plants of both crosses, though late, formed 
pretty good roots. The leaves differed in appearance from 
those of the Swedes, and did not, like them, retain the rain- 
water on their surface. In the following spring they were 
set for seed in two different situations where no extraneous 
pollen might have access. The flowers of the greater part 
were of the bright yellow of the two male parents ; a smaller 
portion in each lot produced straw-colour blossom, like 
that of the Swede : but not one shewed the least disposition 
to an intermediate tint ; and it seemed as if those two colours 
were incapable of blending, or modifying each other. I have 
a crop from their seed this year, but the season has been par- 
ticularly unfavourable for all turnips ; the fly destroyed the 
first sown, and the plants being again too backward, 1 do not 
