December 15, 1906 



horticulture: 



675 



Bells! Bells!! Bells!!! 



Mfv Cfuote tHe follo^ving pr 



ices on 



Christmas Bells 



Ir) inch Bells 



14 inch Bells 



12 inch Bells 



10 inch Bells 



Per Dozen 



$9.00 

 4.50 



2.50 



1. 00 



8 inch Bells 

 7 inch Bells 

 5 inch Bells 



Per Do/en 



$.90 

 .50 

 .50 



GUARANTEED HOLLY 



Same price, same quality as last year. Single case $5.00; two or more at $4.50; five ur 



more at $4.00. 



Best American Mistletoe, Bright and well-berrled. Price reduced from see. to 35c. per pound. 



Artificial PoinSettiaS, best in the market, price 20.00 per hundred. 



Laurel Roping' 



First Class Stock 

 6 to 8 cents per yard 



Holly V^reatHs 



12 cent5 each 



L-aurel Wreaths 



Regular 12 in. Size 

 $2.00 per dozen 



N. F. McCarthy & Co. 



Flowers and Florists' Supplies 84 Hawiey street, boston 



not accepted by the vast majority of 

 growers as responsible for the phe- 

 nomena of "sports", the general belief 

 is that it lies in the blood, to use the 

 vernacular, or to put it in one word, 

 heredity. 



In his paper presented to this society 

 March Sth, 1904, Prof. L. C. Corbett 

 said: "Sporting, then, may be en- 

 couraged by extreme conditions. 

 Either extreme feeding or extreme 

 poverty may induce plants to sport. 

 Severe changes in climate or soil con- 

 ditions may result in decided changes 

 in stature, habits of growth and faith- 

 fulness, which are a-s marked attri- 

 butes of a sport as are changes in the 

 color of foliage or fruit". 



This is undoubtedly true in the ab- 

 stract but it is when brought to bear 

 on concrete cases that it fails to fully 

 satisfy. If by extreme feeding is 

 meant the culture given to roses for 

 example by florists and gardeners 

 when forced under glass for winter 

 flowering, the question arises why 

 more pports are not developed? When 

 thousands of growers are forcing the 

 same variety, it is not always the one 

 who is feeding his crop the heaviest 

 that finds it produces a sport. The 

 fact, too, that a few varieties alone 

 have displayed sportive tendencies to 

 the extent of producing new sorts, 

 strengthens the conviction that the 

 cause lies in the blood. 



The rose Catherine Mermet has been 

 the most prolific in sports of the many 

 which have been grown for cut flowers. 

 Its greatest descendants as sports are 

 The Bride and Bridesmaid, the latter 

 displacing the parent entirely. If 

 feeding was the prime cause, why did 

 not many growers find a "Bride" and 



a Bridesmaid? Catherine Mermet also 

 produced Waban and I think one or 

 two other sports which have dis- 

 appeared. Parti-colored sports have 

 appeared occasionally in The Bride 

 and now a grower has one beautifully 

 striped white and pink, the latter 

 Ijeing the Bridesmaid color and largely 

 predominating. 



Maman Cochet produced a white 

 sport, and in this connection I would 

 say that when a neutral shade like 

 pink is produced, it seems that the 

 combination which produced it carries 

 with it the tendency at some time to 

 produce a white sport. The rose we 

 linow as American Beauty has pro- 

 duced two pink sports, American Belle 

 and Queen of Edgely and it is not too 

 much to expect that from these if 

 largely grown would emerge a white 

 import. 



From the rose Safrano came the yel- 

 low sport Isabelle Sprunt and from 

 Perle des Jardins came Sunset, from 

 the latter I believe came I.a.dy 

 Dorothea, from Gfolden Gate came 

 Ivory, from Bon Silene came the 

 striped rose American Banner, which 

 in addition to the change in flower 

 showed a marked change in foliage 

 being decidedly rugose. The latter 

 characteristic is slowly disappearing 

 under propagation, in fact has almost 

 vanished at the present time. Caprice, 

 Striped La France and other striped 

 roses coming from neutral tinted 

 sorts, coupled with the fact that the 

 other sports enumerated follow in the 

 same line, are sufficient warrant for 

 the belief that the combination which 

 resulted in the parent sorts laid the 

 foundation for the sports which re- 

 sulted from them, and that the man- 



ner of growth had no part in it as a 



prime cause. 



The sporting cycle in the Bouvardia 

 is very interesting and in results it 

 exactly parallels the examples set 

 forth relating to the rose. From B. 

 Hogarth a deep scarlet variety, issued 

 B. elegaus a lighter colored form, and 

 from that issued B. Davidsonii a pure 

 white. It is interesting to note that 

 two white sports originated at the 

 same time, one in Greenville, now 

 Jersey City, N. J., with .Mr. Vreeland 

 and offered as B. Vreelandii, the other 

 B. Davidsonii. They were identical 

 and as the Davidsonii was first on the 

 market the other name was dropped. 

 The original stock of B. elegans In 

 both cases was purchased from Peter 

 Henderson and the conclusion arrived 

 at then was that the elements of 

 cliange were contained in the plants, 

 and that it would occur under any cir- 

 cumstances. Subsequently a double 

 white and a double pink variety were 

 produced as sports, and later a dwarf 

 variety. White Bouquet, sported from 

 B. Vreelandii with William Bock of 

 Cambridge, Mass., who retained the 

 old nomenclature (Vreelandii). having 

 the same flowers as the parent, but a 

 dwarf, bushy habit, about a foot high 

 when in flower. The fact that these 

 sports were progressive in color leads 

 to the belief that the cause for their 

 appearance was within the plant 

 rather than that their coming was 

 brought about by outside forces. As 

 Bouvardias are largely propagated by 

 root cuttings, it strengthens this be- 

 lief. 



(To bi Continued,) 



