chapter I

alluded with some hesitation to the statement that a new breed, between the hare and rabbit, called leporides, had been formed in France, and was found capable of propagating {99} itself; but it is now positively affirmed[213] that this is an error. With plants which can be multiplied by buds and cuttings, hybridisation has done wonders, as with many kinds of Roses, Rhododendrons, Pelargoniums, Calceolarias, and Petunias. Nearly all these plants can be propagated by seed; most of them freely; but extremely few or none come true by seed.

Some authors believe that crossing is the chief cause of variability,--that is, of the appearance of absolutely new characters. Some have gone so far as to look at it as the sole cause; but this conclusion is disproved by some of the facts given in the chapter on Bud-variation. The belief that characters not present in either parent or in their ancestors frequently originate from crossing is doubtful; that they occasionally thus arise is probable; but this subject will be more conveniently discussed in a future chapter on the causes of Variability.

A condensed summary of this and of the three following chapters, together with some remarks on Hybridism, will be given in the nineteenth chapter.

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