218 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
CROSSINGS MADE AT THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM 
OF PARIS FROM 1887 TO 1899, 
By Monsteur L. Henry, 
Inspector of Open Air Cultivation at the Muséum, Professor at the 
National School of Horticulture of Versailles. 
At the end of April 1894, Professor Maxime Cornu, who had occupied 
for two months the Chair of Culture at the Museum, confided to me the 
post of Director of Open Air Cultures in this establishment. 
I left Nancy where, as Superintendent of Practical Horticulture in the 
Mathieu de Dombasle School of Agriculture, and Professor of Horticulture 
in the the same school, I was witness of the very remarkable results 
obtained by hybridisation by Monsieur V. Lemoine, and had planned 
some experiments of the same nature myself. 
My nomination to the Muséum was favourable to the realisation of 
this project. Nevertheless it could not be carried out for several years. 
Before I could find the leisure for it, it was necessary for me to master 
the details of the very complicated work of the Muséum, at once difficult 
and absarbing, and which, in addition, was being reorganised. 
My first personal attempts date from 1887; previously, however, I 
had made sundry experiments according to the suggestions and often in 
the company of Professor Maxime Cornu, whose advice, as kindly as 
it was enlightened, was very valuable tome. At this period M. Cornu 
succeeded with several very interesting crosses, notably in the genus 
Papaver and the genus Cucurbita. 
He had discovered, in a secluded corner of the garden, a very old and 
very strong specimen of the old double Lilac, Syringa vulgaris, var. azurea 
plena, a variety which, though we did not know it at the time, had served 
M. Lemoine for the raising of his first double Lilacs. Professor Cornu 
had guessed also what réle this old type was capable of playing ; he 
submitted it to crossing, and he was good enough to associate me with 
him in these trials. Half-a-dozen capsules were obtained in 1884. But 
preoccupations of an altogether different nature,and very pressing, caused 
us to lose sight of these capsules at the moment when they should have 
been gathered. 
The duties and obligations of his post thenceforth did not permit 
the Professor, to his great regret, to occupy himself directly with these 
crossings. He was good enough to leave the arrangement to me, while 
euiding and encouraging me, for which my gratitude is profound. 
Many attempts were made during ten years, very often followed by 
failure, very rarely by success. ‘They are accurately recorded here in the 
hope that this report may be of some utility. 
Without wishing at the present time to draw conclusions from the 
series of trials, I will only draw attention to the results of our crossing 
with Lilacs, themselves derived from hybridisation, but having preserved 
