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One cannot tell what species will or will not hybridize except by trying. Hundreds of species have been tried, and for them the knowledge is more or less exact. Plants hybridize most freely which are the subjects of much care and coddling: the orchids are the best examples. In these groups, hybrids are chiefly fanciers' plants, valuable often only because they are hybrids or are rare and curious. One cannot tell beforehand whether the products of any hybridization will be exact intermediates, or in what way or degree they will carry over or blend the parental characters. As a rule, the more closely akin the species, the more perfect will be the blending or amalgamation of the two. See Breeding of Plants, Vol. I.
One cannot tell what species will or will not hybridize except by trying. Hundreds of species have been tried, and for them the knowledge is more or less exact. Plants hybridize most freely which are the subjects of much care and coddling: the orchids are the best examples. In these groups, hybrids are chiefly fanciers' plants, valuable often only because they are hybrids or are rare and curious. One cannot tell beforehand whether the products of any hybridization will be exact intermediates, or in what way or degree they will carry over or blend the parental characters. As a rule, the more closely akin the species, the more perfect will be the blending or amalgamation of the two. See Breeding of Plants, Vol. I.
The literature of hybridization is extensive but scattered. The possibilities of hybridization as a factor in plant-breeding are presented in many aspects in the Hybrid Conference Report" of the Royal Horticultural Society, London, 1900. There are special books devoted to orchid hybrids (see Orchids). See an excellent paper by Swingle and Webber. "Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture," 1897; papers in "American Gardening," 1899, pp. 397, 413, 431; Bailey & Gilbert's "Plant-Breeding;” De Uries' "Plant-Breeding." L. H. B.
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