BREEDING FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 115 



Mr. Ilill I certainly shall speak to him, -and I will write to him and ask him if he has 

 found that to be true. It may be that variations of climate would produce a result dif- 

 ferent from what has been the experience in another place. I am sorry that Mr. Hill is 

 not here to answer interrogations. In reading the paper over I tried to read it and get 

 the sense of it; I think I remember one statement in it to the effect that the carnation 

 hybridizers had succeeded in producing flowers nearly twice the size of what they were 

 some years ago, I think ten or fifteen or twenty years ago. I am almost inclined to chal- 

 lenge that statement. I think that the size which we see in the carnation to-day is partly 

 attributable to cross breeding, and also to cultivation. Now I have in my mind the recent 

 Thomas W. Lawson; we saw flowers of it on exhibition, and we saw flowers of it in a 

 store window grown in the same greenhouse by the same man. Some of the flowers were 

 probably 3 1-2 inches in diameter— a great many of the prize flowers exhibited, I think, 

 were 3 1-2 inches in diameter; a great many of the flowers sold in the store were probably 

 2 1-4 to 2 1-2 inches. If the character of size was fixed by the hybridizer, I fail to see 

 why they would not all come to that size grown under the same conditions. So that I 

 think the statement made that the hybridizer had succeeded in doing that is attaching too 

 much importance to the work of the hybridizer and not enough to the man who culti- 

 vates them. I doubt if you go into a flower store or into any of the stores in the city 

 to-day where consignments are received from the various growers of the same varieties, 

 but that you could pick out a dozen samples of Bride and Bridesmaid and American 

 Beauty and all those and lay them side by side, and to the uninitiated they might appear 

 to be different varieties, showing what culture will do for any particular subject. I had 

 more to do with cut flowers twenty years ago than I have to-day. At that time I was 

 in daily association with cut flowers, roses, carnations and others, and in looking back 

 I think that I am safe in saying that the old Edwardsii carnation, which at tnat time was 

 perhaps the biggest white on the market, would compare favorably with the largest whites 

 now on the market in point of size, and I think that President De Graw at the time that 

 it was at its best and well grown would compare favorably in size and productiveness 

 with the Lizzie McGowan, which for a time was the best carnation in the field. So that 

 I should much prefer, if Mr. Hill was here, to interrogate him on these points. Some of 

 the older florists who were in the field twenty years ago would perhaps be better able to 

 speak on this point than I am. 



W. J. Spillman : I want to enforce the suggestion I made. I did not know whethci 

 the ordinary roses are what you might call multi-hybrids or not. Since I learn that they 

 are, I want to just make this suggestion now, that somebody save the seed of a rose 

 and see that this rose is close fertilized; that would be necessary to accomplish what I 

 had in mind; then see what comes of it, and save each plant separately each year and 

 keep a record and see what comes of it, and you will be surprised at the result. You can 

 take my word for it if you want to. 



T. V. Munson: I have one fact that may be of value to those experimenting in 

 roses in reference to the Catharine Mermet. The expectation has been that they can get 

 something more from Catharine Mermet than what has already come about by sporting. 

 In passing through my grounds one daj', where are a number of the Catharine Mermet 

 plants, I came upon one upon which there was one branch producing fine pure yellow 

 roses, as fine as Marechal Niel almost, while all the other branches upon the plant were 

 producing the ordinary flower. I intended to mark the branch and propagate from it; 

 I was not permitted to mark the plant, I was in a hurry at the time, and before I reached 

 it again the flower was gone and I lost the opportimity. But the fact may incite some 

 one yet to observe this variety and possibly get the yellow rose, which would be, I think, 

 the best thing that could be done with that flower. 



The Chair: A very interesting statement, Mr. Munson, as to bud variation from that 

 variety. It has given us two very remarkable bud variations already. I saw Mr. Ward 

 come in a few moments ago. Could he state whether the carnations grown, for "iistance, 

 these hybrids, the beaiitiful collection he has here, are from the first generation of seeds 

 after the cross was made or the second or the third? 



C. W. Ward: Well, I don't think that my records are quite clear enough to enable 

 me to state. I think some of them there would probably come under Mendel's law. 

 Years ago I commenced hybridizing carnations, twelve years ago, and I went at it free 

 and easy for about six years. I never knew that any such person as Mendel had been 



