I40 Cornell Extension Bulletin 9 



G. cruentus Moore (Blood-red, or Bloody, Gladiolus) was introduced 

 into England by William Bull, of Chelsea, in 1868. In his catalog for 

 187 1 he offered the novelty and thus describes it: 



A very beautiful and entirely novel species of this popular genus introduced from 

 Natal. It is not only a very showy plant, but also one of a very distinct character 

 and is an acquisition for the flower garden on account of its vigorous habit of growth 

 and large brilliantly coloured flowers. It produces a tall scape, two feet high or upwards, 

 furnished with long flag-like glaucous leaves nearly an inch wide, the scape terminating 

 in a distichous spike of large, broadly campanulate, subringent flowers of a bright 

 blood-red colour, the upper segments uniformly coloured and the lower smaller ones 

 crimson at the base and scarlet at the apex. The two lateral segments of the lower 

 lip are marbled about halfway down with a white zone dotted with crimson, which 

 on the exterior edge runs out into a long point, like the flame of the Florist Tulip. This 

 distinct species has been figured both in the Botanical Magazine and in the Florist 

 and Pomologist. The price per corm is one guinea. 



The flowers are from six to ten in number and appear late in September. 

 The spikes possess the valuable quality of de\"eloping after being cut and 

 placed in water. The conns are distinguished by their bright yellow color, 

 globular form, large size, and thin covering. 



This species is very sensitive to soil conditions, but, according to Van 

 Fleet, if healthy conns are planted in nearly pure sand with a stratum' 

 of peat for a root run, kept fairly moist, and afforded plenty of sunshine, 

 the plants will be strong and leafy with plenty of bloom. The plants will 

 not grow in clay soil and seldom thrive in rich garden loam. 



The first hybridizer to use this species was John Standish, of Ascot, 

 England, who in October, 187 1, exhibited a hrenchleyensis-cruentus hybrid 

 before the Royal Horticultural Society. The following year this hybrid 

 was named Alice Wilson. A color plate of it appears in the Florist and 

 Pomologist for 1873, P^ge 73. T. Moore says it has more the form of a 

 lily than that of an irid. The flowers were comparatively small, with a 

 white center, a marginal coloration of rosy carmine, and little of the 

 flame-like marking on the lower perianth segments, thus rendering the lily- 

 like illusion all the more striking. 



G. princeps was originated by Van Fleet from G. emeritus crossed 

 with G. Childsii {G. gandavensis x Saundersii). This variety, says 

 the originator, almost exactly reproduces the crimson-scarlet coloring 

 with white and cream feathering in the lower segments, but the flat, 

 circular flower is expanded to six inches in diameter both ways. The 

 plant also is doubled in size in aU its parts. This hybrid retains the pecu- 

 liarity of G. eriientus in producing blunt-appearing spikes with apparently 

 few flowers. Growth continues, however, until sometimes as many as 

 twenty flowers are produced. The spikes show something of the same 

 tendency when cut and placed in water that is kept fresh by frequent 

 changing. 



