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admission, that in certain families the hybrid offspring of
‹two› «many of the»
species, are «sometimes» perfectly
fertile in the first generation, when bred together: indeed in some
few cases Mr Herbert found that the hybrids were
decidedly more fertile, than either of their pure parents. There is
no way to escape from the admission that the hybrids from some
species of plants are fertile; except by declaring that no forms
should be considered as a species, if it produces with another
form, fertile offspring: but this is begging «the»
Transcription and apparatus copyright the American Museum of Natural History