384 



JOUENAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



[ May 9, 1867. 



hitherto been unable to obtain a cross between two such closely 

 related classes as the Golden and Silver Tricolor Pelargoniums. 

 Whence this repugnance to intermarry ? The vegetable king- 

 dom abounds with such examples, and it seems well nigh im- 

 possible to account for them unless on the hypothesis that 

 vegetable like animal life is endowed with some magic power 

 analogous to our sympathies and antipathies. On such a 

 vitally important matter as the perpetuation of itself in an 

 altered form, condition, or colour, the will of the plant, as im- 

 printed on the laws of its life, has to be consulted and obeyed. 

 The vital force resents violence, and limits the operations of 

 the hybridist by the strong arm of unyielding law — keeping 

 him inside its own closely defined lines of consanguinity or 

 affinity. If such a power is exercised— and no one can prove 

 that it is not — on the origin of species and varieties, it is pro- 

 bably also put forth in the secretion, rejection, or arrangement 

 of colouring matter, supposing colour to be a quality of bodies, 

 or in the selection or rejection of particular rays of light pre- 

 suming that it is not. In either case it seems almost im- 

 possible to conceive the colouring being so exquisitely laid on, 

 or made to appear as if it were, without the presiding skill 

 and matchless energy of the vital force. 



Mechanical colourists may reply that structure is also the 

 result of the same energy, and that in contending that colour 

 is chiefly dependent on the disposition of separate layers of 

 matter, they neither ignore its existence nor seek to curtail its 

 power. But there is a wide distinction between growth and 

 colour, else the two would nrobably not only be coextensive, 

 which they may be said to be now, but all colours would pro- 

 bably be alike wherever there was identity of structure. 



Neither is it necessary to enlarge upon the influence of h'ght 

 npon colour. This is well known, and is accppted as the basis 

 of all true theories upon the subject. I believe, however, that 

 just as the sun's rays in their entirety produce white or colour- 

 less light, so this light in an unbroken state naturally produces 

 green colour. Kesolve the sun's rays into their original ele- 

 ments by passing them through natural or artiticial prisms, 

 and we have the glorious hues of the rainbow. Dreak up light 

 by the mechanical media, chemical power, or vital force of 

 plants, or endow them with a natural power of selection of 

 sunbeams, and the result probably is variegation. And just as 

 the rainbow is not the product of a coat of paint on the sky, 

 so brilliant hues in plants may not originate in a layer of 

 colour on their leaves. Both alike may arise from the disin- 

 tegration of light, if I may so express it, and not from the 

 introduction of new matter. So far I agree with "M.," that 

 variegation is not the addition of a new colour, but the sub- 

 traction or elimination of more or less of other tints. It is not 

 a question of putting anyt'ning fresh in, but of bringing some- 

 thing old out. It removes, it may be, a layer of matter like a 

 pigment from an artist's colour-box, or takes out part of a 

 sunt earn from its sLiuiug sheath, and the result in either case 

 would probably be identical — the exhibition of a new colour, j 

 The pencil of the hybridist, then, is less the brush of the artist 

 than of the eliiiinor ; his mission is the removal of overlying 

 matter, so that the great primary colours, red, yellow, and blue 

 of the grand old master Nature may be brought out in their 

 distinctive clearness. Bed and yellow have already been sepa- 

 rated ; can blue also be made to stand alone ? It is probable 

 that it may. Earnest efforts are being put forth in this direc- 

 tion, and when the theory of elimination is better understood, 

 greater success will doubtless attend them. 



Nature seems to favour the hybridist. New colonrs once 

 produced have a tendency not only to perpetuale but to in- 

 tensify themselves. Probably this arises from the fact that 

 not only are different rays of light endowed with distinct 

 functions, but their energy is strougly influenced by the 

 colour of their transmitting media. By such means the 

 chemical power of the sun is probably exerted on behalf of the 

 hybridiser. It works to remove more of the green and expose 

 brighter colours, to break up Nature's mixture, and resolve it 

 into its original elments. It is a matter of actual fact that 

 Mr. Grieve has gone on from good to better, until he has 

 approached towards perfection in yellows and reds. 



Beginning with Golden Chain, the following varieties show 

 the progiessive development of colour like the ascending steps 

 of a ladder — Gold Pheasant, Mrs. Pollock, Lucy Grieve, Lady 

 Cullum, and Mrs. Grieve, the best of all. Neither does he yet 

 despair of a blue. For .this, however, I believe he will have to 

 appeal more to the vital principle End the distintegration or 

 separation theory, and less to the mechanical induction of 

 colour. Otherwise I, who have hitherto contented myself with 



carefully noting, occasionally chronicling, and always rejoicing 

 in his well-merited success, may appear as a close competitor 

 for the blue ribbon. — D. T. Fish, Hardwicke. 



CYCLAMEN PERSICUM CULTURE. 



I ENCLOSE for your inspection leaves and blooms of Cyclamen 

 persicum. The plants have been in flower from last Christmas, 

 but are now just over. It ought to be a plant for the million, 

 but strange to state, it seems to be one of the most neglected, 

 3*et one of the most easy to grow. 



The treatment given here is to sow the seed in February. 

 When the seedlings are large enough to handle they are pricked 

 out in frames, then into small 60-pot3, giving the last shift into 

 large OO's, which are quite large enough for the first year. 



From the time the seed is up, the plants should be kept in a 

 moist, growing temperature, but by no means with a confined 

 atmosphere, and at the end of ten or twelve months fine bloom- 

 ing plants can be had. 



I kept a three-year-old corm from seed. It commenced bloom- 

 ing in the beginning of February, and continued producing 

 flowers nearly to the present time, and not less than from 

 seventy to ninety blooms expanded at one time. I merely stats 

 this to show its usefulness either for in-door decoration, 

 bouquets, or cut flowers. The effect of forty or fifty good 

 plants in a conservatory in the three worst months of the year 

 can be easily imagmed. 



After the blooming period the plants are not allowed to be- 

 come dry at any time of the year, or to be exposed to the mercy 

 of the weather during the summer months. When they show 

 signs of starting, they are repotted, but without destroying any 

 of the roots, and as little as possible of the old soil is removed. 

 They are kept in a cool house with a free circulation of air. — 

 G. E., Strawberry Hill. 



[The specimens enclosed were as fine as any we ever saw. 

 The leaves measured nearly 4} inches across; the petals were 

 IJ inch in length ; and the whole were robust examples of 

 perfect health and vigour. — Eds.] 



EARLY TULIPS. 



Although the Early Tulips are of great value for the spring 

 decoration of conservatories, as well as for enlivening the 

 flo'wer g.arden before the summer occupants of the beds ate 

 planted out, and are indeed largely grown for both purposes, 

 yet, considering their brilliant colours, their easy culture, and 

 the cheap rate at which the bulbs can be purchased, it is sur- 

 pri.siug that they are not still more extensively cultivated. At 

 present Hyde Park furnishes a magnificent example of the 

 effect which they produce in large masses. There, extending 

 for several hundred yards from Stanhope Gate, on the Park 

 Lane side, towards the Marble Arch, is a series of beds 

 which Mr. Mann, the Superintendent of the Park, has filled 

 with these Tulips. Ten beds, all 25 feet long by 8J wide, 

 each containing one variety only, alone afford such a dis- 

 play of Tulips as it may safely be averred has never before 

 been witnessed near London. AH these beds have an edging 

 of Arabis alpina, bearing a profusion of its white flowers, 

 and within this a line of Crocuses, now over, surrounding 

 a mass of Tulips, everywhere uniform in height, and with- 

 out a blank. "The varieties are Rex Itubrorum, double red; 

 Tournesol, red and yellow ; La Candeur, double white ; Yellow 

 Prince, single yellow, and White Pottebakker. Waterloo, 

 single red, was also planted, but came into flower too soon. In 

 the ten principal beds, and in others, altogether about 20,000 

 Tulips were i>lanted, aud although the arrangement of the 

 colours is capable of some improvement, the very successful 

 manner in which the bulbs have bloomed is most creditable 

 both to Mr. Mann, and to Messrs. Gibbs & Co., of Down Street, 

 Piccadilly, who supplied them. In the panels, besides Tulips 

 and Hyacinths, the latter nearly over, there .are Polyanthuses, 

 the white-blossomed Iberisseinpervirens, Alyssumsaxatilecom- 

 pactum, Saponaria calabiica, and some autumn-sown annuals 

 in blrjom. It may also be here remarked that a number of 

 Plane trees, some with trunks upwards of a yard in circum- 

 ference, have been moved back from 15 to 20 feet, to make 

 room for the much-needed widening of Park Lane, and, with 

 a single exception, without injury to the trees. 



Messrs. E. G. Henderson, of the Wellington Eoad Nurseries, 

 have also a very fine collection in bloom, which is well worthy 

 of inspection. It filla some forty beds, consists of several 



