Gärtner mentions that in those cases where the development was regular among the offspring of the hybrids the two original species were not reproduced, but only a few closely approximating individuals. With very extended developmental series it could not in fact be otherwise. For seven differentiating characters, for instance, among more than 16,000 individuals--offspring of the hybrids--each of the two original species would occur only once. It is therefore hardly possible that these should appear at all among a small number of experimental plants; with some probability, however, we might reckon upon the appearance in the series of a few forms which approach them. We meet with an _essential difference_ in those hybrids which remain constant in their progeny and propagate themselves as truly as the pure species. According to Gärtner, to this class belong the _remarkably fertile hybrids_ _Aquilegia atropurpurea canadensis_, _Lavatera pseudolbia thuringiaca_, _Geum urbano-rivale_, and some _Dianthus_ hybrids; and, according to Wichura, the hybrids of the Willow species. For the history of the evolution of plants this circumstance is of special importance, since constant hybrids acquire the status of new species. The correctness of this is evidenced by most excellent observers, and cannot be doubted. Gärtner had opportunity to follow up _Dianthus Armeria deltoides_ to the tenth generation, since it regularly propagated itself in the garden. With _Pisum_ it was shown by experiment that the hybrids form egg and pollen cells of _different_ kinds, and that herein lies the reason of the variability of their offspring. In other hybrids, likewise, whose offspring behave similarly we may assume a like cause; for those, on the other hand, which remain constant the assumption appears justifiable that their fertilising cells are all alike and agree with the foundation-cell [fertilised ovum] of the hybrid. In the opinion of renowned physiologists, for the purpose of propagation one pollen cell and one egg cell unite in Phanerogams[46] into a single cell, which is capable by assimilation and formation of new cells to become an independent organism. This development follows a constant law, which is founded on the material composition and arrangement of the elements which meet in the cell in a vivifying union. If the reproductive cells be of the same kind and agree with the foundation cell [fertilised ovum] of the mother plant, then the development of the new individual will follow the same law which rules the mother plant. If it chance that an egg cell unites with a _dissimilar_ pollen cell, we must then assume that between those elements of both cells, which determine the mutual differences, some sort of compromise is effected. The resulting compound cell becomes the foundation of the hybrid organism, the development of which necessarily follows a different scheme from that obtaining in each of the two original species. If the compromise