Breeding Under Containment

Many cultivated plants display the utmost vigor and yet rarely or never seed. A trifling change, such as a little more or less water at some particular period of growth, will determine whether or not a plant will produce seeds. Many exotic plants have pollen utterly worthless. In the same condition as in the most sterile hybrids, when on the one hand we see domesticated animals and plants, though often weak sickly breeding freely under confinement. We need not be surprised at this system when it does act, under confinement, acting irregularly and producing offspring somewhat unlike their parents.