HORTICULTURE 



Vol. XXX 



AUGUST 9, 1919 



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LETTERS FROM AN OLD TO A YOUNG GARDENER 



In your last letter you asked me 

 how the experiments in crossing Wil- 

 son's wonderful lily (Regale) had 

 progressed. I will tell you first about 

 the crosses where the Madonna (Can- 

 didum) was used as male. 



One reason for using the Madonna 

 was the hope of growing a hybrid re- 

 sembling it but less subject to disease. 



Such a lily would be useful for 

 Easter. I am aware that it has been 

 proposed to use the Regale for this 

 purpose, but as we are accustomed to 

 associate this day with a pure white 

 lily, there might be a prejudice to one 

 with a warm tint. 



At the time I first made this cross 

 my Regale plants had shown no sign 

 of the common fungus disease of the 

 Candidum, but growing them with the 

 latter, they have since been attacked. 

 I believe we should keep Candidum 

 out of a garden where Regale is grow- 

 ing. Though not immune it remains 

 by far the best light lily for my local- 

 ity — the White Mountains — where we 

 expect, and generally get, a frost every 

 month in the year, and where in win- 

 ter the mercury freezes at least once; 

 yet this lily needs no protection. 



Even last winter where we had fre- 

 quent thaws, the bulbs came through 

 well. 



A lily that will thrive under those 

 conditions and increase rapidly from 

 side bulbs is a treasure. 



In a letter from Horsford last sum- 

 mer, enclosing the pollen of some rare 

 lilies, he stated that the fungus had 

 attacked his seedling Regales, which 

 had perished by the thousand, and 

 said we must now spray our garden 

 flowers as much as the plants in the 

 vegetable garden. As he is an author- 

 ity on lilies his advice should be fol- 

 lowed. One other matter in his letter 

 was interesting. He stated when he 

 wished to use the pollen of a late flow- 

 ering lily, on one that blossomed 

 early, he kept the pollen until the 

 next season. This was new to me and 

 may be to you. 



Though in the crossing of Wilson 

 and Macdonna I have obtained no re- 

 sults of scientific value, some of the 



plants are of interest in Hortii n - 

 tube. We have many valuable hy- 

 brids of most of our garden plants, 

 but in lilies we can count them on the 

 fingers of one hand. They are so rare 

 I do not know whether they will breed 

 true, or must be increased only by 

 bulb multiplication. 



The lilies of which I enclose pho- 

 tographs are both hybrids of Regale 

 and Candidum. 



Criticism of Wilson's lovely lily 

 illustrates the old saying, "fools step 

 in where angels fear to tread," but 

 if this flower has a fault, it is that 

 the narrow petals do not fill the 

 spaces sufficiently. 



In the first photograph, this is not 

 so apparent, as it has eight petals in- 

 stead of the typical number — six. The 

 petals are in the form of a double 

 cross. This flower might well be 

 chosen as their Totem by hybridizers, 

 for to use a slang expression, we 

 "sure do get the double cross," for 

 out of fifty thousand hybrid seeds of 

 lilies or iris, we may not get a flower 

 superior to those we had. 



In the second photograph the petals 

 are reduced to four. The flower is 

 odd, but not lily like. 



The reasons why no results were ob- 

 tained, that threw light on Mendel's 

 propositions as applied to lilies, were 

 probably these: 



The seeds which would have pro- 

 duced plants resembling Candidum, 

 may have been feeble, perishing from 

 adverse conditions. The young bulbs 

 of least vigor may have suffered most 

 from moles, who throw out the bulbs 

 by burrowing, and from mice who eat 

 the roots. The young seedlings also 

 suffer from mice, who cut off the 

 stems, which are sweet. 



This summer they cut off flowering 

 stalks to reach the flowers, which they 

 eat into, on the spot, or drag to their 

 nests. Nearly every taxonomic spe- 

 cies of garden flowers, is a group of 

 elementary species, as shown by De- 

 Vries, and the same is true of trees. I 

 have observed this particularly in the 

 white pine. I saw in one day two white 

 pines cut for masts. Each was three 



feet in diameter. Both grew on the 

 same mountainside. One had twice as 

 many annual rings as the other. 



For many purposes the wood of a 

 rapidly growing pine is valuable. 

 Therefore nurserymen should take ad- 

 vantage of this observation and seek 

 out the most rapidly growing elemen- 

 tary species and sow the seed. This 

 is the method of selection used at 

 Svalof by Nilsson in breeding rye, 

 which has enabled him to accomplish 

 in a few generations what the Huns 

 did imperfectly in a lifetime, owing 

 to working on the wrong theory. 



Lilium regale is probably no excep- 

 tion to the rule of individual species 

 within the species, and men like 

 Farquhar who raise this lily from seed 

 almost by the million, should have a 

 good opportunity to isolate the finest 

 of these and breed from them, giving 

 us a super Regale. 



In my crosses of Wilson and Madon- 

 na, the seedlings all looked like the 

 former in stem and leaf; there was no 

 trace of the Madonna. 



When in blossom they could be di- 

 vided into two classes. 



First — Those under thirty inches. 



Second — Those between thirty inch- 

 es and four feet or more. 



The first had lost the red color, and 

 were almost white. Their flowers were 

 smaller than Regale, but larger than 

 Candidum. The anthers were much 

 smaller than in Regale. 



In the second the flowers were 

 larger than the average Regale, and 

 the plants were taller than the general 

 run of this lily. I may state here that 

 only the tallest and finest Regale were 

 used in breeding; on the theory that 

 they might be elementary species. We 

 have not had Regale long enough for 

 me to have isolated such if they exist. 

 I simply took the chance that the 

 plants selected for crossing might be 

 such. 



The anthers of the second group 

 were of two types; very large as in 

 Regale, smaller as in Madonna. The 

 anthers of Regale are glorious organs 

 to a hybridizer, for they contain much 

 pollen. 



