146 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 



sections it produces a few attractive and distinct new light garden forms amid 

 a great proportion of inferior ones. We regard it as promising and will con- 

 tinue work among its dilute hybrids, of which we are now approaching the 

 fourth generation. 



The species typified by G. Saundersi are of the first importance. Saundersi, 

 in the hands of Hcrr Leichtlin, gave us the magnificent strain known in com- 

 merce as Childsii, still of the very highest commercial value, and the large- 

 flowered, brilliantly-colored Nanceianus sections, produced by the Messrs. 

 Lemoin by crossing purpureo-auratus hybrids with the new species. Leichtlin 

 used pollen from the finest procurable Gandavensis varieties on Saundersi, and 

 the result is a class of gigantic, richly-colored kinds mostly of red tints, with 

 widely expanded blooms having a nodding upper segment. When the reverse 

 cross is made, and ovules of Gandavensis fertilized with Saundersi pollen, the 

 result is far less striking. This has been verified by many thousand personal 

 trials. G. Leichtlini is a dwarf early-blooming species, with pretty red flowers 

 having a yellow mottled throat. It is closely allied to Saundersi and the fol- 

 lowing species, and crosses readily with both. One would consider it a prom- 

 ising breeder, from the dainty aspect of its wide-open blooms, but it has in 

 our hands proved quite disappointing. Hybrids with Gandavensis, Lemoinei 

 and Nanceianus types, with very few exceptions, lose individuality, whether 

 the seed or pollen is taken from the species, and are a woefully commonplace 

 lot. Crossed with Saundersi or cruentus, however, a beautiful and vigorous 

 progeny results, quite intermediate in cither case. They are early blooming, 

 and being sterile are wonderfully profuse in bloom. Lemoine's Glaieuls pre- 

 coces look much like some G. Leichtlini hybrids, but it is understood that 

 sulphureus is a parent to some of them. 



Cruentus is a particularly showy species, very distinct, though allied to 

 the preceding both from the botanist's and gardener's standpoint. While 

 vigorous and profuse in bloom, if its requirements are satisfied, it must be 

 considered a particularly ''miffy" species for general cultivation. Though 

 known for many years it no sooner appears in a dealer's catalogue than it is 

 taken out for want of stock. Orders for corms of this species are filled with 

 almost anything but the true article, and much disappointment has resulted 

 among breeders and fanciers in consequence. If healthy corms are planted in 

 nearly pure sand, with a stratum of peat for a root run, kept fairly moist, and 

 the plants afforded plenty of sun, they make strong, leafy plants and bloom 

 finely, but resent any suspicion of clay, and seldom thrive in rich garden soil. 

 My European correspondents report indiflferent results from crossing cruentus 

 with other species and garden varieties, the seedlings falling oflf from the 

 parents in substance or coloring. This is our own experience in the main, but 

 the first batch of hybridized seedlings yielded the truly magnificent variety 

 since known as G. hybridus princeps. It came from seed of cruentus X 

 Childsii, the childsii being, as above noted, Saundersi X Gandavensi'^. It is 

 not necessary to describe Princeps further than to say it almost exactly repro- 

 duces cruentus in its scarlet-crimson coloring, with white and cream feather- 

 ings in the lower segments, but the flat circular flower is expanded to six 

 inches in diameter both ways, the plant is doubled in size in all its parts, re- 

 taining the dark green lustrous and profuse foliage, and is of a vigor of 



