AND THEIR CULTURE. 61 



mildew. In the next year I repeated the attempt, with the same pre- 

 cautions. This time the seed was successfully ripened. Being- sown 

 immediately a portion of it germinated in the following spring, and the 

 rest a year later. In regard to this seed, two points were noticeable, 

 first, it was scanty, the pods, though looking well, being in great part 

 filled with abortive seed or mere chaff, and next, such good seed as there 

 was, differed in appearance from the seed of the same Lily fertilised from 

 the pollen of its own species. The latter is smooth, whereas the hybrid 

 seed was rough and wrinkled. About fifty young seedlings resulted from 

 it, and their appearance was very encouraging, because the stems of 

 nearly all were mottled in a manner characteristic of Auratum. Here, 

 then, was a plain indication of the influence of the male parent. The 

 infant bulbs were pricked out into a cold frame, and left there for three 

 or four years, when, having reached the size of a pigeon's egg, they were 

 planted in a bed for blooming. This was in 1869. Towards midsummer 

 one of the young hybrids showed a large flower-bunch, much like that of 

 its male parent Auratum. The rest, about 50 in all, showed no buds until 

 some time after, and when the bulbs at length appeared they were 

 precisely like those of the female parent, Speciosum. The first bud 

 opened on the 7th of August, and proved a magnificent flower, 9^- inches- 

 in diameter, resembling Auratum in fragrance and form, and the most 

 brilliant varieties of Speciosum in colour. In the following year the 

 flower measured nearly 12 inches from tip to tip of the extended petals, 

 and in England it has since reached 14 inches. It has been exhibited 

 under the name of Parlcmanni. In this one instance the experiment has 

 been a great success, but of the remaining 50 hybrids not one produced a 

 flower in the least distinguishable from Speciosum. The influence of the 

 alien pollen was shown, as before noticed, in the markings of the stem, 

 and also in the diminished power of seed bearing, but this was all. Next 

 year, wishing to see if the male parent would not make his influence 

 appear more distinctly in the second generation, I fertilised several of 

 these fifty hybrids with the pollen of Auratum, precisely as their female 

 parent had been fertilised. The crop of seed was extremely scanty, but 

 there was enough to produce eight or ten young bulbs. Of these, when 

 they bloomed, one bore a flower combining the features of both parents, 

 but, though large, it was far inferior to Parkmanni in form and colour. 

 The remaining flowers were not distinguishable from those of the pure 

 Speciosum. While making these experiments with Speciosum and 

 Auratum I made similar attempts to produce hybrids of other Lilies. In 

 the spring of 1867 I planted twenty or more strong bulbs of Superbum in 

 a favourable spot, and, when they began to bloom, fertilised them with 

 the pollen of Speciosum, Auratum, Tigrinum, Chalcedonicum, Umbellatum, 

 Thunbergianum, Longiflorum, and Tenui/olium. All the anthers were 

 previously removed before ripening, by slitting the sides of the still 

 unopened bud, and extracting them with forceps. There were no other 

 plants of Superbum in the garden or in the neighbourhood, so that in this 

 case, as in the former, fertilisation by the pollen of their own species 

 could not take place. Seed-pods, large and well shaped, were formed in 

 abundance, but when they ripened in October some of them contained 



