THE GLADIOLUS. 59 



Talisman. — A very fine kind, making a tall spike of flowers 

 which are cherry, bordering on violet, and with a white throat. 



Thomas Methven. — The most vigorous sort I have seen. Flowers 

 reddish purple with white throat. The whole flower has a bluish 

 cast. 



Sir Brasidas. — Very light salmon throughout ; wholly unmarked. 

 The only one of its color. 



Baroness Burdett-Coutts. — Yevy large and fine ; rosy lilac. 



Ball of Fire. — Well-named, being of the most vivid, glowing 

 crimson imaginable. 



Africaine. — Deep, dull crimson marked with white ; peculiar and 

 striking. 



Victory. — A low-growing sort ; intense crimson flamed with 

 black. 



Jordamis. — A tall-growing kind ; color, a soft crimson. This 

 has sometimes fifteen flowers open at once on the same spike. 



Abricot. — Very large flower, apricot color, slightly tinged lilac. 



Col. Benton. — Brilliant scarlet and golden j^ellow, — a very fine 

 showy sort, which always attracts attention. 



The variety which took the first prize for a single spike last 

 year, Ambroise Verschaffelt, is an old kind which may be bought 

 for fifteen cents. 



Discussion. 



William H. Spooner said that about twenty-five 3'ears ago he 

 grew twenty-five thousand bulbs of Gladiolus Brenclileyensis ; which 

 produces an enormous number of bulblets, thereby increasing very 

 rapidl3\ He supplied seedsmen and florists ; and this perhaps led 

 to the growth of a taste for the cultivation of the gladiolus in 

 this country. He succeeded in producing many fine kinds by hy- 

 bridizing ; in doing this he found it necessary to cover the flowers 

 with gauze, to keep out bees and humming birds. The species 

 jnirpureo-auratus will yet be the parent of new and novel kinds. 

 Mad. Vilmorin produces enormous bulbs — as large as turnips. He 

 gave up raising gladioli on account of the rust. 



Professor Wolcott Gibbs spoke of the possibility of producing 

 hybrids with Gladiolus papilio, which is a native of South Africa 

 or Ab3'ssinia. It is closely allied to G. purpureo-auratus, and he 

 thought it might give us a new strain. There is too much same- 

 ness in the h^^brids of G. purpureo-auratus ; they all have a dull 

 purple tint, and brighter colors are wanted. There has been no 



