242 



HORTICULTURE 



February 22, i90S 



POINTS ON CARNATION BREED- 

 ING IN AMERICA. 



Rend before the joint meeting of the 

 AnierUnn Cnrnntloii Soplety and Amer- 

 ican Breeders' Association by C. 

 Willis Ward, Queens, N. Y. 



Though I have devoted considera- 

 ble time to the breeding of carnations 

 and to the study of them during the 

 past fourteen years, in view of the 

 complexity of the subject and my lack 

 of scientific knowledge, I feel diffident 

 in placing my views before a confer- 

 ence composed of the most advanced 

 scientific talent of the world. I shall 

 not attempt to enter into a scientific 

 discussion of the subject, but will en- 

 deavor to state in plain language what 

 seems to me to have been thus far ac- 

 complished. 



The Original Carnation. 



As most florists know, the original 

 carnation, which has been known in 

 history for several centuries before 

 the Christian era, was a five-petaled 

 single bloom one inch in diameter and 

 of a pinkish-mauve color. It was dis- 

 tributed in its wild state over the 

 whole southern half of the temperate 

 zone in Europe, but was known more 

 particularly to historians as inhabit- 

 ing France and Northern Italy. It 

 was found in abundance in Normandy, 

 from whence it is generally believed to 

 have been introduced into Great 

 Britain about the time of the Norman 

 Conquest. Even so recently as 1874 

 it was found in a wild state covering 

 the Caslle of Fallaise. in which Will- 

 iam the Conquerer was born. It was 

 described by Theophrastus as early as 

 300 B. C and has been frequently 

 mentioned in history since that date. 



Methods of Reproduction. 



The carnation of today, the subject 

 upon which I am working, is the pro- 

 duct of several centuries of hybridisa- 

 tion and culture. It is an open-polli- 

 nated species, and mother plants can 

 be chosen from amongst hybrids, as 

 well as by imbreeding upon the same 

 plant or upon plants of the same varie- 

 ty. A variety once produced from 

 seed is easily perpetuated for a certain 

 period by propagation from cuttings 

 which are easily rooted and usually 

 secured in abundance. Improvements 

 in varieties may be made by bud selec- 

 tion and new varieties are sometimes 

 secured by bud variation (sports), as 

 well as from seed variation and by 

 hybridisation. 



In raising varieties from hybridised 

 seed very few improvements are pro- 

 duced, the proportion being one good 

 variety for every thousand hybrids 

 grown, and probably as little as one 

 decided advance in each five or ten 

 thousand hybrids grown; and unless 

 some law is discovered whereby we 

 can forecast more surely than we now 

 can what certain specified hybrid seed 

 will produce, it would seem as if even 

 this low proportion of valuable new 

 varieties would decrease rather than 

 increase in view of the higher standard 

 which is being demanded from year 

 to year. 



Working for Color Improvement. 

 Up to the present time I have been 



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pursuing my studies in breeding upon 

 the single subject of color alone, basing 

 my work upon the theory that any 

 laws developed in color would hold 

 good when applied to the development 

 of other qualities; and this hypothesis 

 I still believe to be correct. 



The tools used are very simple, con- 

 sisting only of a pair of delicate tweez- 

 ers and a microscopic magnifying 

 glass. I used to employ a fine camel's 

 hair brush for transferring the pollen, 

 but eventually abandoned it, as I 

 found the use of the tweezers less diffi- 

 cult and speedier work could be done 

 than with the brushes. 



In hybridising the carnation the first 

 step is to remove all the anthers from 

 the mother flower before they develop, 

 and to watch the pistil until it is in 

 a proper receptive condition. The 

 anthers of the selected male parent 

 are watched until just bursting, and 

 the pollen is in the condition of a dry 

 powder. The anther is then removed 

 by means of the tweezers and the 

 pistil of the mother flower is fertilized 

 by lightly touching it along its entire 

 length with the pollen-bearing anther. 

 Conception generally takes place with- 

 in twenty-four hours after this opera- 

 tion, provided the conditions are fa- 

 vorable. 



In order to pursue my color studies 

 with reasonable method I have di- 

 vided the work into the following sec- 

 lions: 



1. Fancy section, comprising all 

 varieties peculiarly marked, of various 

 colors. ■ 



2. Purple and blue section, com- 

 prising all purple flowers and any 

 which may show a tendency towards 

 blue in color. 



3. Crimson and maroon section, 

 comprising all shades of crimson, ma- 

 roon or scarlet maroon. 



4. Scarlet section, comprising all 

 shades of red and scarlet. 



.5. Light pink section, including all 

 shades of salmon, flesh or daybreak 

 tints. 



6. Dark pink section, including all 

 rose, cherrj' and deep pink tones. 



7. White section. 



8. Yellow variegated section, in- 

 cluding all varieties having a yellow 

 ground with scarlet, crimson or pink 

 markings. I have not as yet been 

 able to establish a pure yellow sec- 

 tion, for even though the seeding plant 

 may give pure yellow flowers for a 

 time, as soon as propagation is car- 

 ried on to any extent, more or less 

 variegation appears. 



9. White variegated section, com- 

 prising all varieties with white grounds 

 marked with various colors. 



10. Pink variegated section, com- 

 prising all varieties having a pink 

 ground of any shade with markings in 

 deeper colors. 



In the purple and blue section I 



have not as yet succeeded in produc- 

 ing anything that might be termed a 

 blue; for, although we have had sev- 

 eral varieties showing a distinct blue 

 shade, there has invariably been 

 enough pink in it to convert the tone 

 into a purple or a mauve. The crim- 

 son, dark and light pink, scarlet and 

 white sections have been fairly well 

 fixed; but the yellow, white and pink 

 variegated, and blue sections will be 

 very diflScult to fix, as they are essen- 

 tially mosaics, and there is a constant 

 tendency towards variation in all their 

 progeny. 



( To be Continued t 



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