Among the species of _Ribes_ or currant, which are cultivated in our gardens, the most beautiful are without doubt the Californian and the Missouri currant, or _Ribes sanguineum_ and _R. aureum_. A third form, often met with, is "Gordon's currant," which is considered to be a hybrid between the two. It has some peculiarities of both parents. The leaves have the general form of the Californian parent, but are as smooth as the Missouri species. The racemes or flower-spikes are densely flowered as in the red species, but the flowers themselves are of a yellow tinge, with only a flesh-red hue on the outer side of the calyx. It grows vigorously and is easily multiplied by cuttings, but it never bears any fruit. Whether it would be constant, if fertile, is therefore impossible to decide. _Berberis ilicifolia_ is considered as a hybrid between the European barberry (_B. vulgaris_) and the cultivated shrub _Mahonia aquifolia_. The latter has pinnate leaves, the former undivided ones. The hybrid has undivided leaves which are more spiny than those of the European parent, and which are not deciduous like them, but persist during the winter, a peculiarity inherited from the _Mahonia_. As far as I [271] have been able to ascertain, this hybrid never produces seed. Another instance of an absolutely sterile hybrid is the often quoted _Cytisus adami_. It is a cross between the common laburnum (_Cytisus Laburnum_) and another species of the same genus, _C. purpureus_, and has some traits of both. But since the number of differentiating marks is very great in this case, most of the organs have become intermediate. It is absolutely sterile. But it has the curious peculiarity of splitting in a vegetative way. It has been multiplied on a large scale by grafting and was widely found in the parks and gardens of Europe during the last century. Nearly all these specimens reverted from time to time to the presumable parents. Not rarely a bud of Adam's laburnum assumed all the qualities of the common laburnum, its larger leaves, richer flowered racemes, large and brightly yellow flowers and its complete fertility. Other buds on the same tree reverted to the purple parent, with its solitary small flowers, its dense shrublike branches and very small leaves. These too are fertile, though not producing their seeds as abundantly as the _C. Laburnum_ reversions. Many a botanist has sown the seeds of the latter and obtained only pure common _C. Laburnum_ plants. I had a lot of nearly a hundred seedlings [272] myself, many of which have already flowered, bearing the leaves and flowers of the common species. Seeds of the purple reversions have also been sown, and also yielded the parental type only. Why this most curious hybrid sports so regularly and why others always remain true to their type is as yet an open question.