440 REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON GENETICS. 
those of H. himalaicus, the colour being a delicate pale primrose-yellow. 
Seedlings of this hybrid either produce true H. Tubergeni or H. hima- 
laicus, but I have not observed any H. Bunge: to reappear among them. 
Hybrids between EH. Bunger and H. robustus or EH. Olg@ (the latter 
were also raised in Sir Michael Foster’s garden at Shelford) give 
plants in which a coppery salmon-yellow of the flowers predominates. 
In habit of growth and colour of the flowers some of the seedlings cannot 
be distinguished from H. Warei, which I have always regarded as a 
natural hybrid between H. Bungei and some rosy-coloured variety, but 
not a true species. 
FreEsta.—Up to very lately these charming plants only occurred in 
white and creamy-yellow shades, and though yearly raised by the million 
from seed in France and Italy, seem to have sported very little. Crosses 
between the small-flowered orange-yellow F’. awrea and I’. refracta gave 
interesting hybrids, but not an improvement on either parent. ‘The 
advent of the rosy-crimson-flowered F’. Armstrong from South Africa 
has been a most welcome addition, as this at once opened a wide field for 
_ producing some more variation of colour among these so deservedly popular 
flowers. F'. Armstrongi itself being a rather delicate grower, I made 
no attempt to fertilise it with pollen of F. refracta alba or F’. Leichtlini, 
but placed pollen of F’. Armstrongi on as many different shades and forms 
of F. refracta, F’. refracta alba, and F. Leichtlini as I could procure. 
The results so far have been most encouraging, and I have now a strain 
of tall-growing Freesias with as many as nine individual flowers on every 
spikelet, of which every bulb produces several, in colours varying from 
the palest rose to carmine and purple-red. A small percentage also came 
in shades of orange, buff, and coppery-rose. A selection of these seedlings, 
with flowers of a violet-rose shade, I exhibited in the spring of this year 
(1906) at one of the fortnightly meetings in the Hall, when an Award 
of Merit was given to it by the Floral Committee. I also attempted to 
cross F’. Armstrongi with F’. aurea and vice versd, but both ways with very 
poor results. 
Guapionus.—There are so many magnificent strains of hybrid Gladioli 
now being grown that I made no attempts to further improve the various 
races known as gandavensis, Lemoinet, nanceianus, Childsi, and others, 
but turned my attention to the original species. If the charming and so 
deservedly popular G. Colvillei and its chaste variety ‘The Bride’ should 
have been raised from G. cardinalis and G. tristis concolor (personally 
I very much doubt the correctness of this statement), then why should 
not the intercrossing of other South African species also be likely to give 
good results? Thus far I must own that, although a good many very 
pretty hybrids have been raised in my nursery, I have up to the present 
time only one or two strains of these Gladioli that may prove commercially 
useful. A selection of crosses between G. alatus and G. cuspidatus 
are dwarf-growing, very free-flowering Gladioli which flower in the open 
ground quite three weeks before the earliest of the nanus or ramosus 
sections, which, as is well known, precede the gandavensis and other strains 
in time of flowering from three to four weeks. These alatus x cuspt- 
datus Gladioli, apart from their usefulness in flowering so early in the 
open ground (end of May), are very welcome additions to the Gladiolus 
