581.1 337 



VI 

 The Seed Production of Cut Flowers 



IN the second number of the Botanische Zeitung for this year (Jan. 

 16th 1897, p. 17) Ludwig Jost brings to light a very curious 

 fact in historical botany. He points out that at the close of 1896 

 H. Lindemuth has re-discovered a phenomenon, which has already 

 twice before been described as new. 



It is a well-known feature of many bulbous plants that their 

 flowers are normally sterile, and that their reproduction takes place 

 exclusively by the vegetative process of bulb formation. More than 

 three hundred years ago (1577) Konrad Gesner noticed that if the 

 flower stalks of these plants be separated from the bulb, the flowers 

 will set their seed. This observation, however, fell into the general 

 oblivion which overshadowed the whole of Gesner's work. In 1790 

 — two hundred years later — Medicus re-discovered the fact, and 

 wrote of it in his paper " Ueber Saamenansezen an abgeschnittenen 

 Bltithenstengeln einiger Zwiebeln und Knollengewachse " (Romer 

 and Usteri's Magazin fur die Botan., vol. xi., p. 6.). He was 

 examining the tubers of Stellar ioides canalicuta (? Anthericwm), 

 and in doing so cut off the inflorescence, which he stood up in a 

 corner of the greenhouse for the gardeners to clear away. Returning 

 to the house a few days later he saw that the flower still remained 

 where he had left it, and that, moreover, it was still fresh and 

 unwithered. This interested him, and he determined to see how 

 long it would last thus " cut off from its bulb and standing in a 

 dry position exposed to the sun heat." 



Stellarioides had been grown and flowered in this greenhouse 

 during the three previous years without once setting seed. " I was 

 no little surprised, therefore," he says, " to find that in due course of 

 time the older flowers of this inflorescence, which had been separated 

 from its bulb, formed true seed capsules." " This really remarkable 

 and cp;iite unexpected result," he continues, " led me at once to other 

 experiments. For twenty years past Amarillis reginae L. had 

 bloomed in this greenhouse without once setting seed ; as soon as 

 the flowers drooped, it was seen that their ovaries and all they 

 contained withered likewise." Medicus next proceeded to cut off 

 an inflorescence, including three flowers, and to leave this standing 

 in the greenhouse. After a time all three flowers formed seed 



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