134 Cornell Extension Bulletin 9 



The class was recommended for market and for cutting, and especially 

 for hybridizing. Five varieties were offered, as follows: Amathusia, 

 Amphitrite, Andromeda, Penelope, Eris. It appears that specimens were 

 sent by Mr. Sprenger, of the firm of Dammann & Co. to J. G. Baker, 

 who described this new gladiolus in the Gardeners' Chronicle of May 20, 

 1893, but ascribed it to a cross between G. communis and G. cardinalis or 

 G. Colvillei. Endicott (1897) says that G. Victorialis is not so good as G. 

 byzantimis, and that he saw no evidence of African blood. Apparently 

 the class was of little value, since it seems not to have been cataloged by 

 the introducers for more than a year. 



When the above-named specimens were sent by Mr. Sprenger to Mr. 

 Baker there was included a papilio-gandavensis hybrid, which was described. 

 Later Mr. Sprenger sent six hybrids, as follows: communis x Colvillei; 

 communis x Colvillei albus; communis x cardinalis; ramosus x cardinalis; 

 papilio X cardinalis; papilio x angustus. These were not described, and 

 the writer could not ascertain whether or not any of them found their 

 way into the market. They are of interest to botanists and plant breeders 

 in view of Dean Herbert's opinion regarding the possibility of uniting 

 the species of Europe and South Africa. 



Another interesting class of gladioli was the Glaieuls a epi rond, the first 

 varieties of which, Triomphe de Paris and IMme. Casimir-Perier, were 

 introduced by Cayeux et Le Clerc in 1902. These gladioli with flowers 

 all around the stem were a novelty, and the following additional varieties 

 were sent out: Eureka (Lem., 1903); Triomphe de Nancy (Lem., 1905); 

 Caprice (Lem., 1906); Cotironnement (Lem., 190S). They were of passing 

 moment, however, and have ahnost disappeared. 



In 1905 Roger de la Borde exhibited his Giant-flowered Hybrids, which 

 he claimed were the result of crossing several species with a very severe 

 selection of the seedlings. The flowers were large, some of the varieties 

 having flowers twenty-two centimeters in diameter, while the American 

 varieties under the same conditions were only thirteen centimeters. The 

 colors were delicate. The spikes were furnished with from four to six 

 flowers open at one time. 



G. primulinus, which flowered at Kew in 1890, has in recent years been 

 used in hybridizing with other races and species of gladioli. This species 

 seems to have come into coinmercial notice in France in 1905, and in the 

 United States through Thorbum in 1908. Cayeux et Le Clerc obtained 

 a number of seedlings of G. primulinus, using different and more or less 

 yellow-flowered varieties of G. Lemoinei, G. nanceianus, and G. gandavensis. 

 They also made reciprocal crosses. Crosses with such gandavensis varieties 

 as Hohenzollern and Safrano gave the best results. vSeventy per cent of 

 the seedlings were yellow and hooded, as in the type. The nanceianus 

 crosses gave less pure colors, the flowers being striped with shades of 



