98 On the Production of new varieties 



approaching it, and Avhich will not probably be ever obtained,) 

 and with several shades in one individual flower. Until hybi-idi- 

 zation was introduced, none other than self-colored ones were 

 known — that is, flowers of which the petals were all of one 

 shade; but now we have shaded, striped and edged ones of sur- 

 passing beauty and shape. The camelha is another instance; — until 

 1819 no seedling varieties had ever been obtained except in 

 China. From the common warratah, however, by impregnating 

 that sort with the finer double ones, several kinds, almost equaling 

 in splendor the Chinese ones, have been successively raised. Not 

 above eight or ten varieties have since the above date been in- 

 troduced from China; yet some collections in France and Ger- 

 many enumerate three or four hundred sorts. In this country, 

 in New York, several varieties have been produced, one or two 

 of which equal, if not excel, any of the English seedlings. Of 

 the more tender flowers, the geranium, the calceolaria, and the 

 amaryllis have been subjected to the skill of the florist; of hardy 

 or nearly hardy kinds, the rhododendron and the azalea have been 

 wonderfully improved; and here we have evidence of the great 

 importance of cross fertilization in that most superb variety, the 

 aha clerense. This plant was raised from the R. arboreum 

 of Nepaul, a quite tender species, which had been impregnated 

 with a hybrid between the catawbiense and ponticum; and the 

 history of its production is here worthy of note. To obtain a 

 hybrid between the R. arboreum and some of the hardy kinds 

 had long been desired; but the specimens of the arboreum at 

 Highclere (the Earl of Caernarvons,) had never shown any dis- 

 position to bloom. It had, however, flowered at the Grange 

 and some other places, and from the former an umbel of its 

 splendid blossoms was produced, and carried in a tin case to 

 Highclere. With the pollen of the flowers the seedling before 

 named was impregnated, and about eighteen hundred seedlings 

 were raised. These were distributed among several nurserymen 

 before they flowered; but among those retained at Highclere 

 was produced the alta clerense. 



The Hon. and Rev. Wm. Herbert, a w^ell known raiser of 

 hybrids, has produced a great number of new varieties of differ- 

 ent genera; and his experiments go to prove that these varieties 

 are in many instances fertile, and will reproduce, with impregna- 

 tion, other new varieties. His experiments have been mostly 

 made with the Amaryllif/dcccB and the Gladioli, though he has 

 extended them in a greater or less degree to most all classes of 

 plants. The hybrids he has raised of the Gladioli are, many of 

 them, extremely splendid. 



In the production of new varieties, the first object of the cul- 

 tivator should be to select such plants as would appear most 

 likely to produce fine kinds from the intermixture of the two; 



