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H O R T I C U L T U R f: 



February 29, 1908 



duces scarlet flowers; but, as a rule, 

 such scarlets are not as brilliant or 

 persistent as those produced from 

 plants having mainly scarlet pedi- 

 grees. One of the best ways of 'pro- 

 viding this hypothesis is to take two 

 scarlet parents the pedigrees of which 

 are mainly white. By crossing these, 

 very few scarlets will be produced — 

 sometimes none at all — but a large 

 percentage of the progeny will fre- 

 quently be pure white, or white 

 grounds marked with scarlet or vari- 

 ous shades of pink. I have some- 

 times thought that by taking a scarlet 

 variety of comparatively pure scarlet 

 pedigree and crossing it with a white 

 variety of the pedigree of which is 

 largely scarlet, more clear and per- 

 sistent scarlet tones are produced 

 than where the pure scarlet pedi- 

 grees are used. For I have often 

 found that with pure scarlet pedi- 

 grees there is a tendency for the 

 color, even though it be very bril- 

 liant, to blacken, or turn a slaty shade 

 when exposed to bright sunshine. 

 Working for Early Blooming Char- 

 acter. 



While I have not been able to 

 prove to my satisfaction that this 

 hypothesis is right, there still seems 

 to be evidence enough to warrant the 

 assertion that if you desire free- 

 blooming habits use parents having 

 early free-blooming pedigrees. The 

 same should hold good if you desire 

 to produce varieties with extra large 

 blooms, or perfect calyx, or any other 

 peculiarity in habit or form of flower; 

 it also seems to hold good in regard 

 to fragrance. Again, the early-bloom- 

 ing varieties usually have small to 

 medium-sized blooms, and the very 

 large flowering varieties are generally 

 late and inclined to be shy bloomers. 

 This can to some extent be overcome 

 by crossing large-flowering late- 

 blooming varieties with the early 

 free-blooming ones which have the 

 largest blossoms. This, if followed 

 up, will in the end produce large- 

 flowered early-blooming varieties. 

 Working on these lines. I have al- 

 ready succeeded in producing "Alma 

 Ward." which under our intensive 

 culture gives flowers ranging from 

 2 1-2 to a little over 4 inches in dia- 

 meter on stems from 2 to 3 feet in 

 length, according to the season; and 

 those flowers are produced in suffi- 

 cient abundance to make the variety 

 very profitable commercially. It is 

 also a faii-ly early bloomer, coming 

 into flower by October 1. This va- 

 riety was obtained by crossing "Pros- 

 perity," a large-flowered, not very 

 free variety, with a white seedling 

 having a very large flower and long 

 stem, and quite a free bloomer. 



Mr. Peter Fisher, the raiser of "The 

 Lawson" and "Enchantress," two of 

 the most satisfactory of our American 

 commercial varieties, secured his 

 strain from crosses between "Day- 

 break" and a sport of "Tidal W^ave," 

 two quite large-flowered very free- 

 blooming as well as early varieties. 

 In "The Lawson" a curious blend- 



ing of the qualities of both 

 parents may be observed. "Daybreak" 

 is a long-stemmed variety; "Tidal 

 Wave" usually has quite short stems 

 in the early part of the season, but 

 as the season advances they become 

 as long as those of the present "Day- 

 break." Double flowers may be pro- 

 duced by crossing single blooms with 

 pollen from very double ones, and the 

 more double the pollen parent is, the 

 greater seems to be the proportion of 

 double-flowering seedlings produced. 

 Influence of Ancestry. 



Studies of color characteristics dur- 

 ing the past twelve years seem to have 

 <leterniined that the male parent does 

 not exercise any paramount or domin- 

 ant influence — but that either male or 

 female or both may determine the 

 dominant characteristics of the prog- 

 eny. 



In the case of seedlings used from 

 other hybridizers, I am not able to 

 give the color parentage, but expect 

 if we had such color parentage it 

 would not tend to change the results. 

 My conclusions from these studies 

 have led me to believe that it Is not 

 either parent that exercises dominant 

 influence upon the hybrid, but there 

 may be .several elements which tend 

 to control the characteristics in the 

 hybrid. As for instance, the total per- 

 centage of the characteristics of a 

 number of ancestors which may be il- 

 lustrated as follows: Supposing that 

 crossing a dark pink upon a white, 

 sixty per cent, of the ancestry on both 

 sides was dark pink, the chances to 

 secure a dark pink to the hybrid would 

 be largely in proportion to the per- 

 centage of dark pink existing in the 

 ancestry on both sides. On the other 

 hand, supposing that we crossed a 

 white with a white which had a large 

 percentage of dark pink in the ances- 

 try, and, as a result of said cross, we 

 produced a large percentage of whites. 

 This might tend to show that the con- 

 dition of the chromosomes in the cells 

 exercised the paramount influence in 

 determinin.g the characteristics pro- 

 duced in the hybrid. Now, it might 

 be possible to take different indivi- 

 duals, the result of the same cross, all 

 of the individuals being white, the 

 crossing two individuals might pro- 

 duce a large percentage of whites, 

 while crossing two other individuals, 

 all being white, might produce a large 

 percentage of pink. This would again 

 tend to prove the theory that the con- 

 dition of the chromosomes in the cells 

 of the individuals might exercise para- 

 mount influence. 



There is another peculiar thing that 

 seems to be the case in regard 

 to crosses between the same in- 

 dividuals, and that is that crosses 

 between such individuals made at 

 different periods of the year when 

 the plants were growing under 

 somewhat changed conditions produce 

 different results. This might lead us 

 to the theory that the condition of the 

 individuals at the time that impregna- 

 tion takes place may exercise para- 

 mount influence over the characteris- 

 tics of the progeny. This theory 

 might seem to be proven by the re- 

 sults obtained in the production of 

 mankind where a dozen children the 

 result of the union of two individuals 

 and born at somewhat widely different 

 periods present widely different char- 



acteristics, both mental and physical 

 as well as in appearance. 



My impression is that it will take 

 several years' study in order to deter- 

 mine the question. Possibly it may be 

 necessary in continuing my experi- 

 ments to segregate the female blooms 

 in apartments by themselves so as to 

 prevent the chance of a foreign grain 

 of pollen alighting oh the pistil, as 

 this might explain some of the appar- 

 ent idiosyncracics in the results ob- 

 tained in my youth. 



A Summary of Results. 



The summary of the results of cross- 

 ing different colors may prove very 

 interesting. For instance, where crim- 

 son was crossed with crimson the re- 

 sults produced twelve crimson and five 

 scailets; where dark pink was crossed 

 with dark pink, thirty-seven dark 

 pinks were produced; where white was 

 crossed with white, thirty-iour whites 

 were produced, and only one white 

 variegated with pink, there being no 

 solid colors. Where white was crossed 

 with crimson, five whites were pro- 

 duced and two scarlets, the balance 

 being divided between dark pink, flesh 

 pink and crimson, but where white 

 was crossed with dark pink, the result 

 was three pure whites. 



There is another element In making 

 up these studies which may interfere 

 with their value in deciding the ques- 

 tion of paramount influence and that 

 is that only varieties that possessed 

 a number of characteristics were pre- 

 served and records kept of them. 

 There is a great mass of stuff that was 

 thrown away, and in making these 

 crosses we were constantly selecting 

 plants possessing all the characteris- 

 tics desired. I am inclined to think 

 that the fact that we threw away a 

 lot of useless stuff will not change the 

 result. For instance, taking the result 

 of crossing w'hite with white, there 

 were saved for observation from these 

 crosses thirty-four whites and one 

 white variegated with pink, as all the 

 white parents of both sides were se- 

 lected not only for their good color, 

 but also for size and form of flower, 

 integrity of calyx, healthy constitu- 

 tion, stiffness of stem, vigor of growth, 

 and also for freedom of bloom. The 

 tact that thirty-four whites were se- 

 lected for trial as against only one 

 white variegated with pink and that 

 the results of these white crosses did 

 not produce anything in solid colors 

 that were worthy of selection for trial 

 would seem to indicate that whatever 

 laws exist in regard to the influence 

 of the parents upon the progeny would 

 finally prove to be applicable not only 

 to color but to all other characteris- 

 tics. 



Some Interesting Conclusions. 

 Now, when we come to the consider- 

 ation of pure crosses which we might 

 specify as crosses between males and 

 females of the same color, we find the 

 following remarkable results: a cross 

 of white upon white produced thirty- 

 four whites against one other color; a 

 cross of light pink upon dark pink 

 produced six light pinks as against 

 four of other colors; a large number 

 of crosses of dark pink upon dark pink 

 produced thirty-seven dark pinks as 

 against twenty-four of other colors; a 

 cross of scarlet upon scarlet produced 

 ten scarlets. .411 of which would tend 



