110 



GARDE^ERS' CHRONICLE 



rubra. After a season spent in trying to intercross the 

 day and night bloomers one will be rewarded with his 

 notes indicating the pollinations, but alas: no seeds. .My 

 experiments have satisfied me that it is impossible to in- 

 tercross between groups and likewise, so far, sub-groups. 

 This is attested by many hundred crosses made at various 

 times during the day and even at night. If we examine 

 the hybrids to date we tind all tloral characters of one sub- 

 group, whether it be under that of Apocarpuv or Syn- 

 carpi<c, or in other words we do not find any trace of 

 sub-group Lotos in Marliac's hybrids from group Casta- 

 lia despite the fact that they both belong to Syncarpicc. 

 It is self-evident that the flesh color was transfused from 

 within the same .group from either the American or Euro- 

 pean varieties. \\'ithout doubt Marliac wanted to mislead 

 his com[3etitors, especially as he refused to reveal the par- 

 entage so as to prevent other water lily men at that time 

 from crossing his field of activities. 



We find statements that N . gigantca has been crossed 

 with Zanziharicnsis: this seems more reasonable in view 

 of both types being day bloomers and native of the tro])ics. 

 However, the j)roof is lacking except the coloration which 

 is insufficient to substantiate the reason of stamens, styles, 

 etc., being type. 1 have made repeated crosses between 

 these sub-grou])s with apparent success, using ovalifolia 

 as the pistillate parent. One pod produced seed of small 

 size, resulting in a solitary seedling causing enthusiasm, 

 so observations were noted accordingly. During the seed- 

 ling stage the first disappointment appeared in the absence 

 of spiral petioles as with normal gigantea. The floating 

 leaves, however, suggested the staminate parent by being 

 orbicular. Just as soon as the j)lanting season opened, 

 my coveted seedling was given a sjjecial corner in the pond. 

 During the early part of July the first bud unfolded its 

 floral envelope, revealing a light blue lily of the Whitaker 

 strain. Now the question was, whether or not the blue 

 color was sufficient evidence to prove gigantea as the pol- 

 len parent ? Xo. It had to show other intermediate char- 

 acters as a shortening of the carpellary .styles or filanien- 

 tose .stamens which should naturally be the case through 

 gigantca influence, but every part of the flower with the 

 possible exce])tion was type Bracltyceras. Not being en- 

 tirely satisfied I tried for additional proof by selling with 

 its own pollen so as to carry the experiment through the 

 second and third generation for possible reversion of type 

 gigantca and likewise oz-alifolia. the original parentage. 

 The result gave forms of Whitaker and type ovalifoUa 

 but no possible indication of gigantca as the staminate 

 parent. The reader no doubt is saying to himself. "Well, 

 what happened?" The final experiment imparted that 

 Nature had caused the minutest grain of pollen from .V. 

 capcnsis or Zan::ibaricnsis either by wind or insects to 

 come in contact with the ]iistil at the time of ])oHinalinn. 

 Motto: lie careful of undesirable pollen at tlie lime nf 

 pollination. 



Prki-.akixg Fi.ow'ers kok Pollex Reception 



It is plainly manifested that one cannot be too carefid 

 in plant breeding, esiiecially so with those that are grow- 

 ing outside, {jiving free ingress to insects and wind. It 

 is interesting to observe the hymenojrtera visiting the tx- 

 i;anded flowers for the purpose of collecting Dollen and 

 nectar. 'I"he in.sects in most cases visit the older flowers 

 first by walking to and fro over the anthers, the iiollen 

 soon becoming agglutinated around their legs in roimd 

 beads. When the fresh flftwers are visited the reccplinn 

 afforded the insect is entirely different : we very soon find 

 the insect in its death struggle tr>ing to crawl out of its 

 involuntary bath caused by the concave nectar-filled jiistil 

 preventing it from flying. The stamens are so arranged 

 as to form a series of sjirings built in series and grading 



down in size toward the center. l']joii the oi)cning of the 

 flower all the stamens are perpendicular, making it pos- 

 sible for the insect to get a foothold of the small interior 

 whorls. 1 lowever, they only act as springs for the ex- 

 [jress ])Ur])ose of repeatedly dum])ing the exhausted insect 

 liack into its involuntary bath until death. It is a com- 

 mon occurrence to find as many as half a dozen dead in- 

 sects within the fertilized jMstil. .Vevertheless the flower 

 is pollinated for the perpetuation of the species as Nature 

 provided. 



("cci/iPz/f. 



A ^AKirpii^ji. 



/. 9!>v^i*i 





lyui'^yam of longitudinal scclions of seed fods ivitli attached 

 slamcns. shelving how the distineliTC lypes may lie reeogniccd by 

 either stamen or carpellary styles. 



It is therefore very jilain that the hyliridist must lie on 

 his guard against the insect invasion of his selected flow- 

 ers, and, in addition, self-])ollination. To overcome the 

 latter the seed-bearing flower should be emasculated in 

 the bud stage by removing all stamens and attached 

 anthers. The best time to accomplish this is at the time 

 of flower expansion; the anthers very rarely dehisce pol- 

 len at this time. The pistil is always receptive before the 

 shedding of pollen to prevent inbreeding. I'oth staminate 

 and pistillate flowers must be covered either with water- 

 proof bags or by the use of elastic bands to kee]i out pol- 

 linating insects. One cannot be too careful in litis res])ect. 

 I have even had insects fly into the concave ])istil during 

 llie act of applying the selected pollen, immediately sjioil- 

 in the cross. 



OFFICIAL CATALOG OF STANDARDIZED 

 PLANT NAMES 



l'"XTi;.\Sln.\ 111 TlMI', 



"Till'', ]>re-i)ublication jirice of $3..^0 ($3.7^ west of the 

 Mississippi River, in Canada and abroad), is good on 

 all Millers accompanied In ea-li and n'Ciived lis Ma\ 1. 

 l')_'l. 



This extension of time w.is m;iile necessarv as it was 

 fiiund im])ossible to get out the l'ros])ectuses to organi- 

 zaliiins in lime for their members to avail of the sjiecial 

 prc-puli!ic;ition price. 



AMi-.KiiAx loixT t().\iMriri:i-: ox 



IIOKTK I 1 TUR.'M, NOMICNCl-.-XTURK, 



\. Horace Mcl*nrlnnfl, Chairman, 



Hiulitn r, KcUcy. Si\rciary. 



