THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



Gladiolus oppositiflorns — the flowers clearly opposite on the 



spike. 

 Gladiolus Saundcrsii — the flowers hooded, scarlet, with a white 



throat spotted red. 

 Gladiolus dracocephalus — a brownish yellow type. 

 Gladiolus psittacinus — the flowers spreading, dull scarlet and 



yellow. 

 Gladiolus piirpureo-auratus — the flowers yellow with maroon 



blotches on the lip. 

 Gladiolus cardinalis — the flowers scarlet and white. 



Red and yellow, with traces of white, with some dotting and 

 purplish blotching on the lip-segments, all the colors dull when 

 compared with our present-day varieties ; with small size and 

 weak habit ; these were the elements at the disposal of the pioneers 

 in the development of the gladiolus. 



From 1800 on the hybridization and selective work began.* 

 The first type evolved was Gladiolus Colvillei, a race of small- 

 flowered pink and white forms, said to be the result of crossing 

 Gladiolus cardinalis with G. concolor. The old varieties alhus 

 and The Bride belong here. The Gandavensis group of varieties 

 appeared about 1841, produced by Van Houtte. The flowers of 

 this group were mostly variations of red, but of better shades 

 than the old G. psittacinus and G. cardinalis, the parent species. 

 With the improvement of the Gandavensis varieties there came 

 from the Lemoine establishment at Nancy, France, about 1880, 

 a new race, the Leinoinei hybrids, which were said to be derived 

 from various Gandavensis varieties crossed with G. purpureo- 

 auratus. The Lemoinei types were of better shades of yellow 

 and red, with broad, rounded petals and purplish-brown blotches 

 on the lip, suggesting strongly the purpureo-auratus blood. In 

 Germany Leichtlin developed a type, brought to this country and 

 introduced by John Lewis Childs as the Childsii type. This has 

 large, wide-open flowers of delicate colors, often finely pencilled 

 in the throat and lips, and contains some of our most beautiful 

 varieties to-day. In 1889 Lemoine introduced his N anceianus 

 group, the results of working on his Lemoinei varieties other 

 * Beal, Gladiolus Studies, I, 1916, p. 125. 



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