VARIETIES OF FLOWERS.-HYBRIDIZATION. 
153 
of the same species, as, for example, between an European and a 
Negro, if the parents of a new generation are at the same distance 
from the original stock, the hybrid will continue itself, and per¬ 
petuate its character as a new variety, without any tendency to 
breed back to the one parent or the other. It is true that by 
new and repeated hybridizings we may altogether, or very nearly, 
obliterate the peculiar characters of one of the parents, and bring 
the race back to the other ; but there is no increase in this, any 
more than there is a deficiency of it in the continued hybrid. 
In plants, as we said, the principle is the same, though the 
practice is much less general, and the new characters are less 
striking. If the hybrid is between allied species only, and 
one of them predominates, the new sub-species will dege¬ 
nerate, or fall back to the characters of the predominating one ; 
and if the characters of both are nearly equal, the new genera¬ 
tions of the progeny will break apart, and perhaps there will be 
found, from the same seed vessel, seeds which will produce 
the one the one parent, and the other the other, in nearly 
the same purity as they were before the hybrid was obtained. 
If, on the other hand, the hybrid is between varieties of the 
same species, it would be much more permanent in its cha¬ 
racter either to the one or the other, unless the properties of 
one of them should greatly predominate. This predominating of 
the properties of one parent in the hybrid is a matter worthy of 
much observation and study, because it is the one upon which the 
florist must proceed in seeking to obtain flowers of any peculiar 
character. The energy of the fertilizing and the fertilizable 
principle is that by which we must be guided, because the result¬ 
ing plant always takes after that parent which is most energetic. 
Unless there is this strong predomination in one of the parents, 
hybrids between varieties have little tendency to degenerate back 
to the type of either parent; but when they do degenerate, it is 
more towards the character of the wild flower in a state of nature. 
Thus, for instance, a bed of hyacinths may be of a great variety 
of colours—white, red, blue, and many intermediate tints ; but 
if this bed is left for a time neglected, in soil favourable for 
the growth and preservation of hyacinths, all the blooms will, and 
that before very long, come to the single bells and the pale blue 
of the common wild hyacinth. In the case of a bed of roses, if they 
are neglected, they lose much of their beauty; but they retain 
VOL. II. NO. VII. 
X 
