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with a white spot, which is lanceolate in the lower one,
and ovate in the others, running down in a narrow line
to the base of the laciniæ, on each side of which it is
bright purple. Stamens 3, ascending, inserted in the
upper part of the tube, about the length of the style :
filaments smooth : anthers linear, sagittate at the base,
2-celled white. NZyZe smooth. /S'ZZg’Jwas 3, widened
at the point, spreading or reflexed.
A very splendid hybrid production, that was raised,
in 1823, at the Nursery of Mr. Colvill, from seeds of
G. concolor, that had been fertilized by the pollen of
G. cardinalis ; all the plants that have yet bloomed, have
been exactly alike, not the slightest variation in them ;
which confirms our belief that the numbers of species of
plants are daily increasing, in the same manner, by
natural means, as we increase them by artificial ones ;
indeed we cannot see how it can be otherAvise, particularly
in the warm countries, where myriads of insecte
are continually flitting from flower to flower, and fertilizing
one species Avith the pollen of another ; by this
means of producing hybrid plants in our collections,
the flowers may be much improved in beauty and variety,
as it is only to consider what two colours to be mixed,
would cause an intermediate one, surpassing either, with
part or all of the spots or marks belonging to both ; and
plants raised from the seeds of the mule plant, if fertilized
by its oAvn pollen, will all come as true as any
species whatever, not, as has been advanced by some,
return by degrees back to one or other of its parents ; that
entire nonsense, as any one who practises raising ISm
ule plants must soon be convinced of; the present
plant requires precisely the same treatment as the one
in the next plate.
1. Spathe. 2. P e rian th ium sp read open, to show th e insertion o f th e Stamens.
3. One o f th e Stamens detach ed . 4. Germen, te rm in a ted by th e Styie , and 3
d ilated fimbriate Stigmas.
if. 3
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