HYBRID INTERMIXTURES. 
375 
continued about sixteen years perfectly sterile. In 1834 a 
plant of it which had been growing- the greater part of that 
time out of doors in front of the stove, produced one small 
seed. It vegetated, but the leaf was from the first of a yel- 
lowish white, and the plant did not live many weeks. In 
1835 it produced another and larger seed, the early part of 
the summer having been very hot both those seasons. This 
seed was sown in white sand to try to save it from perishing 
like the former, and a thriving young plant has been obtained 
from it. Whether they are the produce of its own pollen, or 
that of Pedunculato-capense, which grew beside it, cannot 
yet be judged with certainty ; but the seedling now growing 
vigorously, has deep green leaves, and does not shew any 
approximation to the glaucous hue* of C. Capense, of which 
a large bed was not far off; and that hue would probably 
have been very apparent, if it had been so crossed again. I 
had often attempted to fertilize C. Capense by the pollen of 
this beautiful mule unsuccessfully, but the circumstance of 
the two seeds it has borne shews that it is possible to obtain 
such a second cross, which would be a great acquisition, as 
it would certainly yield a plant of hardier constitution, and 
able to bloom in our open gardens, with much greater beauty 
of flower than Capense itself. 
I have not found as yet the results which might perhaps 
have been expected, and which Mr. Knight seems to have 
obtained, from carefully blending the pollen of more than 
one species before its application. I attempted to fecundate 
calceolaria plantaginea with the pollen of twelve species, most 
industriously mixed together, but very few seeds were ripened, 
and the produce differed very little from those which had 
been procured by the pollen of one of the twelve species. 
Further experiments are necessary to establish how far the 
influence of different males can act simultaneously, by admix- 
ture of the dust. I have obtained mule seed and natural seed 
from the same capsule, but they were probably formed in 
* Since these pages were prepared for the press, the supposed seedling from 
C. Capense by Spectabile, which had grown very slowly, having been immersed 
in water in the stove has pushed vigorously, and my present opinion is that it will 
prove to be a natural Capense produced by the escape of some particle of maternal 
pollen, notwithstanding all the precautions which had been taken. This seed- 
ling had been glaucous from an early age. The refusal of the W. African spe- 
cies, Spectabile and Broussonetianum, to breed with Capense is therefore not yet 
overcome. 
