March 2, 1907 



HORTl CULTURi: 



255 



British Horticulture 



AN KAIiLY CARNATION SPECIALIST. 



1 n the roeoutly published repoi-t of the National Car- 

 Uiitiuii and Picotee Society, an interesting reference is 

 made to ifr. .lames Hogg, a leading cultivator of car- 

 nations of sixty years ago. His best known work is en- 

 titled "Tlie Carnation and Other Garden Flov/ers," 

 which ran into several editions. It contained a colored 

 plate of a bizarre carnation, very much in the style of 

 Frankhn's Tartar, published half a century earlier. A 

 fiiU description is given of the yellow ground picotees. 

 Tlu' yellow carnation was introduced into England in 

 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and had developed into 

 the yellow ground picotee in the 17th century, but prob- 

 ably owing to the English climate not being adapted to 

 tlie seeding of carnations in the open garden the test 

 yellow ground picotees came from, the Continent in 

 Hogg's lime, and he states that some of them were 

 rai.sed in Morocco. The names of fifty varieties are 

 given, but none of them are English. Hogg records the 

 fact that the Empress Josephine had an admirable col- 

 lection of yellow picotees in her garden at Malmaison. 

 ;uul he adds: "The late Queen Charlotte and the Prin- 

 cesses had a superb collection of yellow ])ieotees at Frog- 

 more." 



TIIK LATEST CAIIXATIOX HOOK. 



From Hogg we gain an insight into the early devel- 

 opment of the carnation. The "last word" at present 

 on the subject is obtained from an interesting book 

 recently published by Mr. Haywood Mathias, the secre- 

 tary and originator of the Winter Flowering Carnation 

 Society, and Mr. P. Smith, who has been associated with 

 Mr. Mathias in his culture of the flower at Medstead 

 in Hants. The writers take a liroad view of the situa- 

 tion and have no foolish prejudice, as is the case with 

 some Britishers of insular ideas. "The superiority of 

 the American over the English winter-flowering carna- 

 tion is indisputable." they state, "at any rate as far as 

 liractieal decorative value is concerned, and though it 

 cannot and must not be judged by the standard of our 

 border varieties, for the pur])ose for which it is de- 

 signed, the American cannot be beaten by anything 

 hitherto produced on this side of the water." Dealing 

 with items of culture, the writers point out that the 

 bench system is universal in America, but they con- 

 sider that this is only applicable where carnations are 

 grown commercially and on a large scale. "It does not 

 at all follow," the authors concede, "either that what 

 answers in America should of necessity answer in Eng- 

 land, where the climatic conditions are absolutely differ- 

 ent, and we mav mention that far and away the best 



lilooms we have seen in this country have been grown 

 in pots, and have been the produce of three different 

 nurseries." 



THE L.VTE Sli; MICHAEL FOSTE;^. 



The loss of a great horticulturist is mourned in the 

 recent demise of Sir ^lichael Foster, who for many 

 years had devoted attention to improving the iris. Sir 

 ^Michael took up the cultivation of irises ove/ thirty 

 years ago. He commenced by growing all the ordinary 

 known forms of the iris, and then he sought to get new 

 types, or to bring back old ones, obtaining them from 

 the various parts of the world where the plants grow. 

 Jn this work he was very much heljjed by the late Dr. 

 Kegel of St. Petersburg, who was able to import a large 

 number of plants from Central Asia, and by Max 

 Leichtlin of Baden-Baden, and others. Subsequently 

 he received a great deal of assistance from missionaries, 

 especially the Americans in Asia Minor. Sir Michael 

 got into correspondence with them, and they sent him 

 a large number of plants, some of which proved to be 

 new. He continued to rely upon the missionaries until 

 the leading firms of nurserymen sent their travellers 

 into these regions. Experiments were first made with 

 the common bearded iris. An Iris variegata was crossed 

 with I. pallida. From that cross Sir Michael Foster 

 obtained 200 or more seedlings, which comprised among 

 rhem many of the old garden forms, often spoken of as 

 German irises, such as I. neglecta amcena and the like. 

 Among the newer ones was a variety which afterwards 

 liecame very popular under the name of Mrs. Horace 

 Darwin. 



SOME DEVELOPMENTS OF THE lEIS. 



Out of the light blue Iris cengialti, crossed with the 

 pollen of I. Balkana-(a bronze-purple) Sir Michael 

 Foster obtained about 18 seedlings of varied colors, not 

 only light blue and deep purple, but pure white and sev- 

 eral shades of yellow, as well as mixed tints were in- 

 eluded. From an early period this noted hybridizer 

 paid attention to the oncocyclus irises. The true onco- 

 cyclus irises have been crossed w^ith the regelia section, 

 such as I. Korolkowi. and some striking tints have been 

 secured. Interesting crosses were also made between 

 the oncocyclus and the regelia irises with the rihizoma- 

 tous irises. I.iberica, cros.sed with the pollen of I pallida, 

 and I. pallida crossed with the pollen of iberica pro- 

 duced some very attractive forms. Another success was 

 the cross between I. Lorteii and I. pallida. The hybrids 

 between oncocyclus and rlhizomatous irises were found 

 to be very sterile, so that in most cases it was not possi- 

 lile to go beyond the first generation. Sir Michael 

 raised several interesting hybrids of I. reticulata, but 

 these were lost through fungous disease, but he was 

 more fortunate with I. xiphium. Some beautiful hy- 

 brids of this section were cros.sed with I. filifolia, and 

 a xiphium was crossed with I. tingitana. Some use- 

 ful work was also done in the Juno section. It will 

 thus be .-^een that the deceased scientist had benefited 

 horticulture considerablv bv his hybridizing work. 



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