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characters, that “this fusion of characters may take place in cer- 
tain cases, but it has appeared to me that, in general, things did 
not take place in this way” ; and again, “it has appeared to me that, 
in general, the resemblance of the hybrid to its two parents con- 
sisted, not in any intimate fusion of the diverse characters peculiar 
to each one of them in particular, but rather in a distribution, 
equal or unequal, of the same characters.” 
He finally concludes : “To what, then, does this faculty belong, 
which nature has, of reproducing upon the descendants such or 
such a character which had belonged to their ancestors ? We do 
not know. We are able, however, to suspect that it depends upon 
a type, upon a primitive mould, which contains the germ which 
sleeps and awakens, and which develops or not according to circum- 
stances, and possibly that which we call a new species is a case in 
which develop organs, ancient but forgotten, which have existed in 
the germ but have not had their development favored.” 
Darwin on Hybrids. — On November 24, 1859, appeared the 
first edition of Darwin’s epoch-making book, “The Origin of Spe- 
cies,” in which he briefly reviewed the results and conclusions re- 
garding hybrids and hybridization up to his time. In reading Dar- 
win’s chapter, one is strangely struck by the persistence of the 
species-variety question. 
Is this a “species,” or is it merely a “variety” ? — a question 
which crossing was expected to answer. If two organisms would 
not cross, or if their offsprings were sterile, they were thereby 
proved to be distinct “species.” If they freely intercrossed, or 
if their offsprings were fertile, then ipso facto, they were “vari- 
eties” of the same species. Darwin’s thesis — that “species,” so 
called, grew out of “varieties” so called, by natural selection, 
caused him to review the evidence which the work of the hy- 
bridists, especially Koelreuter, Gartner and Herbert, afforded. 
Regarding the matter of the relation of hybrids to species-affinity, 
Darwin writes with his usual conservative wisdom : 
“No one has been able to point out what kind or what amount 
of difference, in any recognized character, is sufficient to prevent 
two species crossing. It can be shown that plants most widely 
different in habit and general appearance, and having strongly 
marked differences in every part of the flower, even in the pollen, 
in the fruit and in the cotyledons, can be crossed. The facility 
of making a first cross between any two species is not always 
governed by their systematic affinity or degree of resemblance to 
