December 29, 1906 



HOKTICULTURi: 



721 



SPORTS. 



A paper by Patrick O'llara before the 



New York Horticultural Society. 



{Continued from page byj) 



An instance where at a bound a 

 white sport issued from a srarlet va- 

 riety is found in Salvia splendens 

 alba. From Salva splendens, at the 

 base of the tube in the latter is always 

 found a bleached white which extends 

 less or more beyond the sheath, there- 

 fore, the white sport seems a natural 

 progression, as the subsequent striped 

 sport is. 



The double abutilon, a sport from 

 A. Thompsonii and identical in its 

 variegated foliage and color of flowers 

 is the only case of sporting which I 

 can recall in that plant, although 

 widely grown. 



The carnation sports are numerous 

 and here again they are progressive. 

 I cannot recall, for instance, where a 

 yellow issued from a red or white, or 

 a white from a yellow or a crimson. 

 It is when neutral shades are reached 

 that sporting begins. The same is 

 true of chrysanthemums and to a 

 lesser extent of dahlias, both of which 

 are very prolific in sports. It seems 

 to be along well defined lines of color 

 changes then that sporting follows, and 

 the layman may well be pardoned 

 when he arrives at the conclusion 

 that it is the blood and is not brought 

 about by growing conditions. If the 

 latter theory was correct, it seems to 

 me there would be no limit to sports 

 while the limitations seem to be ar- 

 bitrarily fixed, which is not the case 

 with seminal reproduction. 



Another phase of sporting is when 

 the habit of the plant is changed, some 

 examples of which I have alluded to 

 previously. Climbing roses issue fre- 

 quently from dwarf sorts, particularly 

 in the monthly class. As far as I can 

 recall, the flower in such cases is al- 

 ways identical with the parent. In 

 the Hybrid Perpetual, and Hybrid Tea 

 classes too, climbing sports are pro- 

 duced, but there is a difference very 

 marked from the monthly sports. The 

 latter are easily fixed and never "run 

 back," while the others to the best of 

 my knowledge are never absolutely 

 fixed, and thus are constant rever- 

 sions, temporary and permanent, in 

 individual plants. 



The foliage sports are many, but I 

 will only mention one, viz., the Golden 

 Bedder coleus which resulted as a 

 sport from Lady Burrill, a variety 

 with harlequin markings of dark red 

 and yellow. It has never reverted. 

 While on the subject of coleus, I can- 

 not forbear from referring to a 

 marked instance of the occurrence, 

 wide apart, of a similar break in this 

 plant. The golden leaved coleus orig- 

 inated in England and was imported 

 by Peter Henderson. Before the plants 

 arrived, seedlings raised from seed 

 saved on the place from the old dark 

 leaved sorts developed some golden 

 varieties. 



In Prof. Corbett's paper, already 

 quoted from, he says, "Burpee's dwarf 

 lima bean is a good example of a 

 sport where the habit of the plant was 

 markedly changed." This brings us 

 into the realm of seed sports, wider 

 and more complex than the other and 

 I do not mean to explore It to any 

 extent. 



Prof. Bailey is authority for the 

 statement that: "Bud variation and 



CARNATION PINK IMPERIAL. 



John E. Haines. Originator. 



seed variation are one in kind." and 

 again: "I am ready to say that I be- 

 lieve bud variation to be one of the 

 most significant and important phe- 

 nomena of vegetable life, and that it 

 is due to the same causes, operating in 

 essentially the same way. which un- 

 derlie all variations in the plant 

 world." Again he observes: "I want 

 to express my conviction that mere 

 sports are rarely useful. Sports are 

 no doubt the result of very unusual 

 or complex stimuli or of unwonted re- 

 frangibility of the energy of growth, 

 and not having been induced by condi- 

 tions which act uniformly over a 

 course of time they are likely to be 

 transient." Again. "Tlie vexed ques- 

 tions associated with br<i variation are 

 not yet greatly elucidated." Again: 

 "All these conclusions prove the un- 

 wisdom of endeavoring to account for 

 the evolution of all the forms of life 

 upon any single hypothesis; and 

 they illustrate with greater emphasis 

 the complexity of even the funda- 

 mental forces in the progression of 

 organic nature." Again: "Now this 

 matter of bud variation has been a 

 most puzzling one to all writers upon 

 evolution who have touched upon it. 

 It long ago seemed to me to be inex- 

 plicable, but it is no more unintel- 

 ligible than seminal variation of 

 plants." These quotations from "The 

 Survival of the Unlike" are introduced 

 to show how contradictory even an 



eminent authority on the subject can 

 be, at least so it appears to me, a lay- 

 man. If I understand him at all, It 

 is to the effect that all sports are the 

 result mainly of the conditions under 

 which the subjects are grown; that all 

 variations are of a sportive charac- 

 ter; that the difference between well 

 cultivated and poorly cultivated plants 

 is a sportive one. 



The average florist and gardener Is 

 hardly prepared to accept that view, 

 perhaps the reasoning is too subtle for 

 him to follow. He knows that no cul- 

 tivation of which he Is master can 

 make a poor variety as good as a 

 good one; he knows that sports, as he 

 understands them, are sporadic and 

 many believe that by a careful study 

 of heredity on the part of scientists 

 the law governing sports might be dis- 

 covered. But to return to the lima 

 bean. Here again we find a cycle of 

 change. Three sports appeared within 

 a very short time, almost simultane- 

 ously, viz., Kummerle's, subsequently 

 called Dreer's, Henderson's, the lat- 

 ter appearing with several growers at 

 the same time, and Burpee's. Of the 

 origin of the first two I have no specific 

 knowledge, they merely happened; but 

 as to the last, the raiser — I had al- 

 most said the creator — claimed that a 

 horse trod on a plant while It was 

 young, that it never grew to be a 

 climber, and that the beans repro- 

 duced dwarf plants. This was gener- 



