Romantic tales have been told of the accidental finding of
cotton fibre in the nests of humming birds in South America. This may or may not be the pretty origin of the discovery ; but with regard to Erbifex, it is a created plant : it was not discovered as such, but made. An exotic has been altered and developed by hybridizers and selectors, till it has become a new plant. Erbifex, in the idiom of the botanists, is " of garden origin," like very many of the most beautiful varieties of our garden trees, bushes, and plants. Herein lies a real ground of hope for the future of humanity. This art of hybridizing, associated with scientific selection, may create plants as useful to mankind as, say, wheat, which in its earliest form of spelt was hardly of world-wide importance. An illustrating example that may be important is the recent appearance of a variety of Soya Bean (now being grown experi- mentally in Berkshire), which apparently takes kindly to the English climate. * * *
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