228 breck's new book of flowers. 



Messrs. Strong, Spooner, and otlier gentlemen have ex- 

 hibited new seedling varieties, some of them fully equal 

 to any imported. These hybrids have often very valua- 

 ble qualities, besides their beauty ; they are frequently 

 more hardy, and very often are more prolific in flowers 

 than the originals, though in some cases they do not pro- 

 duce seeds. As the art of hybridizing is not generally 

 known, it may be interesting to the reader to be made 

 acquainted with the process, and I cannot present the sub- 

 ject in any clearer light than to adopt the description 

 given by my late friend J. E. Teschemacker, in an article 

 published in the Horticultural Register, in 1835, on the 

 Gladiolus. He says: — "My Avay has been, when the 

 flower just commenced opening, I open it very carefully, 

 and then extract the anthers with a pair of tweezers or 

 pincers, before they can have opened and shed their pol- 

 len on the pistil, which will then be found with the trifid 

 divisions closed. As soon as the flower, thus deprived 

 of its anthers, has opened and the styles have separated, 

 take the ripened pollen from the anthers of the flower 

 you wish to mix and impregnate with, either with a small 

 j^iece of cotton, a camel's hair pencil, or the fine point of 

 a penknife, and shed it on the styles so that it remains 

 sticking there ; this will impregnate the seed. 



It is now, however, necessary to prevent this flower re- 

 ceiving, by the means of insects or the air, pollen from 

 any other flowers of the same species, either of its own 

 spike or from others ; for this purpose, I have generally 

 tied a piece of very fine gauze or India muslin over the 

 flower, so as entirely to protect it from further impreg- 

 nation. 



When the petals are fading, it will be perceived, by the 

 swelling of the seed vessel, whether the purpose in view 

 has answered. Should it have been successful, I remove 

 the muslin, and ucencrallv allow somc^ of the other flowers 



