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Show 254 HYBRIDISM. CHAP. VIII. largely accepted by modern naturalists; namely, that most of our domestic animals have descended from two or more aboriginal species, since c~~mingled .by intercrossing. On this view, the ab~nginal. speCies. must either at first have produced quite fertile hybrids, or the hybrids must have become i~ s~bsequen~ generations quite fertile under domestication. This latter alternative seems to me the most probable, and I am inclined to believe in its truth, although it rests on no direct evidence. I believe, for instance, that our dogs have descended from several wild stocks ; yet, with perhaps the exception of certain indigenous domestic dogs of South America, all are quite fertile together ; and analogy makes me greatly doubt, whether the several aboriginal species would at first have freely bred together and have produced quite fertile hybrids. So again there is reason to believe that our European and the humped Indian cattle are quite fertile together; but from facts communicated to me by Mr. Blyth, I think they must be considered as distinct species. On this view of the origin of many of our domestic animals, we must either give up the belief of the almost universal sterility of distinct species of animals when crossed; or we must look at sterility, npt as an indelible characteristic, but as one capable of being removed by domestication. Finally, looking to all the ascertained facts on the intercrossing of plants and animals, it may be concluded that some degree of sterility, both in first crosses and in hybrids, is an extremely general result; but that it cannot, under our present state of knowledge, be considered as absolutely universal. Laws governing the Sterility of first Crosses and of Hybrids.- W e will now consider a little more in detail the CHAP. VIII. LAWS OF STERILITY. 255 circumstances and rules governing the sterility of first crosses and of hybrids. Our chief object will be to see whether or not the rules indicate that species have specially been endowed with this quality, in order to prevent their crossing and blending together in utter confusion. The following rules and conclusions are chiefly drawn up from Gartner's admirable work on the hybridisation of plants. I have taken much pains to ascertain how far the rules apply to animals, and considering how scanty our knowledge is in regard to hybrid animals, I have been surprised to find how generally the same rules apply to both kingdoms. It has been already remarked, that the degree of fertility, both of first crosses and of hybrids, graduates from zero to perfect fertility. It is surprising in how many curious ways this gradation can be shown to exist; but only the barest outline of the facts can here be given. Whe~ pollen from a plant of one family is placed on the ~tigma of a plant of a distinct family, it exerts no more Influence than so much inorganic dust. From this absolute zero of fertility, the pollen of different species of the same genus applied to the stigma of some one species, yields a perfect gradation in the number of seeds produced, up to nearly complete or even quite complete fertility; and, as we have seen in certain abnormal cases, even to an excess of fertility: beyond that which the plant's own pollen will produce. So in hybrids themselves, there are some which never h~ve produced, and probably never would produce, even With the pollen of either pure parent, a single fertile seed : but in some of these cases a first trace of fertility may be ~etected, . by the pollen of one of the pure parentspemes causing the flower of the hybrid to wither earlier than it otherwise would have done· and the early withering of the flower is well known t~ be a sign |
