112 BULBS AND TUBEROUS-ROOTED PLANTS, 
on all other subjects, said that it was produced at Ghent, 
and was across between G. psittacinus and G. cardinalis. 
However satisfactory this statement may have been to 
florists in general, it by no means settled the parentage 
of that noble class. The late Hon. and Rey. William 
Herbert, an acknowledged authority on bulbs, said Mr. 
Van Houtte was in error, because, after repeated 
attempts to hybridize these species he, Mr. Herbert, 
could not succeed, consequently it was an impossibility, 
and that Mr. Van Houtte must have been mistaken as 
to the origin of G. gandavensis. All the English author- 
ities agreed with Mr. Herbert, and in every treatise on 
the Gladiolus his opinion was quoted as correct. 
We can easily understand why results can be reached 
1a one country, that are impossible in another. The 
difference in climatic influences are sufficient to prevent 
in one case, what it is easy to accomplish in another. 
Certain it is, that in the origin of G. gandavensis, a new 
race began, and to it we are indebted for the fine garden 
varieties now so extensively cultivated. While crosses 
between this hybrid and the species are easily effected, 
it has not been necessary to resort to further hybridiza- 
tion to accomplish the most wonderful results. 
We wish, at this point, to correct the common error 
of calling the new varieties that annually appear, ‘‘hy- 
brids.” They are not, in any sense, hybrids, and rarely 
are. they the results of cross-fertilization. ‘They are 
simply choice seedlings, creatures of accident. We have 
raised from seed, either especially cross-fertilized, or 
carefully szlected from the best named sorts, or from 
seed taken at random from our fields, in all, more than 
a million corms; among the number some of the best 
known varieties are, Isaac Buchanan, Martha Washing- 
ton, Bayard Taylor and Charlotte Cushman. Im all 
our efforts to produce a desired effect we have failed, 
and, instead, we have been favored with some remarkably 
