CROSS-BREEDING. 
11 
extent. The great number of new and beautiful Roses, Azaleas, 
Camellias, Fuchsias, Dahlias, and other flowering plants so 
splendid in colour, and perfect in form, owe their origin to care- 
ful cross-breeding. 
In the amelioration of fruits it is by far the most certain, and 
satisfactory process yet discovered. Its results are more speed- 
ily obtained, and correspond much more closely to our aim, than 
those procured by successive reproduction. 
In order to obtain a new variety of a certain character, it .is 
only necessary to select two parents of welF known habits, and 
which are both varieties of the same, or nearly allied species, and 
cross them for a new and intermediate variety. Thus, if we 
have a very early, but insipid and worthless sort of pear, and 
desire to raise from it a variety both early and of fine flavour, 
we should fertilize some of its pistils, with the pollen of the best 
flavoured variety of a little later maturity. Among the seed- 
lings produced, we should look for early pears of good quality 
and at least for one or two varieties nearly, or quite as early as 
the female parent, and as delicious as the male. If we have a 
very small, but highly flavoured pear, and wish for a larger pear 
with a somewhat similar flavour, we must fertilize the first with 
the pollen of a large and handsome sort. If we desire to im- 
part the quality of lateness to a very choice plum, we must look 
out for a late variety, whether of good or bad quality, as the 
mother, and cross it with our best flavoured sort. If we desire 
to impart hardiness to a tender fruit, we must undertake a cross 
between it and a much hardier sort ; if we seek greater beauty 
of colour, or vigour of growth, we must insure these qualities by 
selecting one parent having such quality strongly marked. 
As the seeds produced by cross fertilization are not found to 
produce precisely the same varieties, though they will nearly all 
partake of the mixed character of the parents, it follows that we 
shall be most successful in obtaining precisely all we hope for 
in the new race, in proportion to the number of our cross-bred 
seedlings ; some of which may be inferiour, as well as some 
superiour to the parents. It is always well, therefore, to cross 
several flowers at once on the same plant, when a single blossom 
does not produce a number of seeds. 
We should observe heie, that those who devote their time to 
raising new varieties, must bear in mind that it is not always 
by the first fruits of a seedling that it should be judged. Some 
of the finest varieties require a considerable age before their 
best qualities develop themselves, as it is only when the tree 
has arrived at some degree of maturity that its secretions, either 
for flower, or fruit, are perfectly elaborated. The first fruit of 
the Black Eagle cherry, a fine cross-bred raised by Mr. Knight, 
was pronounced worthless when first exhibited to the London 
Horticultural Society ; its quality now proves that the tree was 
not then of sufficient age to produce its fruit in perfection. 
