416 REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON GENETICS. 
From flava x aurantiaca major I have obtained a very fine flower 
named ‘ Corona,’ which gained an Award of Merit from the Royal Horti- 
cultural Society in June 1905. The blossoms are large, well shaped, 
well opened, fragrant, and of a rich orange-yellow. The plants vary some- 
what in height; the tallest, which have, I think, the best flowers, reach 
4 feet. (The average height of flava in my garden is about 3 feet.) The 
leaves show clearly the influence of the pollen-parent. 
One of the seedlings has rather narrower petals than his fellows, and, - 
at any rate this year (1906), is later in blooming. Roughly speaking, the 
‘Corona’ is very much the flower which I expected to obtain from this 
cross. 
H. flava x H. aurantiaca has produced a very tall flower—about 5 feet 
in height—something like flava in shape, but larger and of a deeper yellow. 
The plant has not yet had time to develop its characteristics. The foliage 
is taller than that of ‘Corona,’ just as the leaves of awrantiaca are longer 
than those of aurantiaca major. 
Taking H. Thunbergw as seed-parent, I have made several crosses. 
H, Thunbergu x H. Middendorffii is a very floriferous plant, showing 
plainly the presence of Middendorjfic blood in its shape, the flower being 
much rounder than H. Thunbergu. It is pretty much half-way between 
its parents, and blossoms much earlier than Thunbergit. 
H. Thunbergu x H. aurantiaca has given me many seedlings. One 
(‘Chrysolite ’) has a large, rather pale yellow flower; another (‘ Halo’) has, 
as its name indicates, a halo round the centre of the inside of the flower. 
It produces its blooms, which are round and broad-petalled, very freely. 
Another seedling, while pale in colour, keeps the same interior markings 
as ‘Halo.’ Another has a bloom of a rich almost fiery-orange without 
any markings, but it is not so round in shape as ‘ Halo.’ I may say that 
I made this particular cross with the object of obtaining a flower with a 
halo—as in aurantiaca there is a suspicion of such a marking as would 
on a lighter-coloured flower probably be conspicuous. Of course a 
hybridiser needs imagination. 
IT have one large plant which gives rich orange flowers borne on very 
stiff stems. The label has unfortunately been lost, but I believe the plant 
was produced by crossing a Thunbergitx aurantiaca seedling with 
Middendorffii.. The plant blooms early (before flava this summer at any 
rate) and has very vigorous foliage of a very peculiar green. 
As to H. fulva, I have many times used pollen of it, but never with 
success, and it, moreover, refuses to seed. I have looked for seed of it 
in many places—in Auvergne, in Switzerland, in Northern Italy, near 
Naples, in Sicily, in the Lipari Islands, in Northern Asia Minor, in Trans- 
Caucasia ; but I have never yet found a single pod, and fairly persistent 
inquiries have failed to bring to light an instance of its seeding. H. Thun- 
berg for some time refused to seed in my garden, but eventually it seeded 
freely, so that I have not absolutely given up fulva, though my hopes are 
“attenuated to exiguous proportions.” A 
In a letter, for which I have to thank Herr William Miiller (I have’ 
made use of Herr Miiller’s letter in the table of hybrids at the end of this 
paper), who writes from Vomero, Naples, I learn that Herr C. Sprenger, of 
Vomero, Naples, has raised some new hybrids from H. fulva maculata 
