ON THE CROSSING OF ‘ ANTHURIUM SCHERZERIANUM.’ 325 
but a paper must have limits, and I consider it advisable to limit myself 
to matter of a nature to furnish information. 
I do not pretend to lay down any rigid rule or absolute formula in 
what I have said. I speak from notes taken in the course of my 
operations, and am open to correction. My opinions may be summarised 
as follows :—Whatever be the object pursued in artificial fertilisation, 
it is always very important to be well acquainted with the plants with 
which one works. It is not always enough to go back two or three 
generations.- It is also necessary, and of the greatest importance, to 
select the plants intended to be used for the male with very great care ; 
for I repeat again that the influence of the male greatly preponderates, as 
my repeated experiments have proved beyond doubt. It also requires 
perseverance, and minute attention must be given to the modifications 
which successively occur in the colour of the spathes of the Anthuriums, 
so uniformly fixed hitherto in the red and salmon colours of the type 
Rothschildianum. 
A tendency towards other variations has indeed shown itself for some 
years past. I have thus been enabled to obtain by selection varieties 
with rose-cerise, rose-carmine, and coppery-salmon spathes. All these 
varieties are the result of crosses between Parisiense and a dark red 
variety, the former being the male plant, and the latter the female 
plant. I have had to operate twice, but I had not hoped to attain my 
object until after a third operation. It is obvious that the type of the 
Anthurium Scherzerianum being of a red colour, there will always be 
a tendency to revert to that colour. It has been comparatively easy 
to modify the foliage, which by judicious selection has been changed 
to such a degree that I have now plants having leaves of considerable 
width, and also short in proportion, which considerably enhances the 
general aspect of the plant. 
An incident, which appears to me rather peculiar, occurred in my 
experiments about 1887, and deserves to be recorded. I obtained from a 
batch of seedlings of Anthurium Scherzerianum one plant, the aspect of 
which is absolutely different from the others: the leaves are perfectly 
erect, leathery, short, and very strongly petiolate at the base, with a 
sort of swelling which is very pronounced. The spathes are round, or 
nearly so, very thick, and, in fact, fleshy. The spadix is yellow and very 
strong. The general aspect of the plant resembles a Pothos. I named 
this variety Anthurium Scherzerianum Rex. Fertilised by itself, it is 
reproduced easily with very little variation; but all my attempts to 
obtain produce from it with other varieties have failed, or, at least, have 
only given me plants of no value. I may add that this variety is of 
slow growth, and always remains very compact. It is, moreover, so 
-distinct that one could recognise it among a thousand others. 
