GLADIOLUS STUDIES— I 



BOTANY, HISTORY, AND EVOLUTION OF THE 

 GLADIOLUS 



Alvix C. Beal 



And the small wild pinks from tender 



Feather-grasses peep at us 

 While above them bums on slender 



Stems the red gladiolus. — Lord Lytton. 



Among the summer garden flowers, few, if any, have made more rapid 

 progress in popular favor in recent years than the gladiolus. The sho"^y 

 character of the tall spikes of flowers, their long period of bloom and com- 

 parative ease of culture, render them poptilar garden subjects. Popular 

 as they now are, they deserve to be better known until they are found 

 in every garden or door\'ard where flowers are grown. 



Although gladiolus blossoms have been sold on some markets for many 

 years, it appears that only during the last fifteen years have the merits 

 of this plant as a stmimer cut flower come to be known and appreciated 

 by florists and the flower-buying public. At the present time, gladioli 

 rank among the first of the summer cut flowers for market, their keeping 

 qualities rendering them very satisfactory^ for table and other decorations. 



The name gladiolus is variously pronounced and from time to time 

 during the last fifty years its pronunciation has occasioned some contro- 

 versy in the horticultural press. The word is a Latin diminutive oE gladiiis 

 (a sword) and means little sword. If the pronunciation follows the Latin 

 rule, according to which derivative endings in oliis have a short penulti- 

 mate syllable, the o is short. Furthermore, according to the nile for Latin 

 pronunciation, a vowel is regularly short before another vowel, which 

 makes the i short. Latin dictionaries give the first vowel in gladiiis and 

 gladiolus as short. The word should therefore be marked thus: gladiolus.^ 

 The rule for accent is as follows: " Words of more than two syllables 

 are accented upon the penult (next to the last) if that is a long syllable, 

 other^vise upon the antepenult (second from the last)." - Gladiolus, having 

 a short penult syllable, o, would have the accent on the i, or antepenult 

 syllable, thus: gla-di'-6-lus. The plural is properly gladioli, although the 

 EngHsh sometimes write it gladioluses. 



' Latin pronunciation English pronunciation 



a as in Cuba a as in fat 



1 as in cigar i as in pin 



6 as in obey 6 as in nol 



• Bennett, C. E. A Latin grammar. Revised edition, page 5. 1908. 



93 



