94 HYBRIDISING AND CROSS-BREEDING. 



the hybrid parentage is known ; and in many cases I am fully 

 convinced, from experiments of my own, that, if the same 

 parents are crossed as at first, the reproduction of hybrids 

 would be the result. At present the raisers of hybrids 

 never, or at all events very rarely, attempt to repeat any cross 

 they have previously made, since, if the results are bad, they 

 avoid repeating the experiment, and if it is successful, and a 

 distinct and beautiful hybrid is obtained, reproduction is more 

 easily effected by the vegetative methods, such as cuttings, 

 layers, grafting, or division. 



The ends to be obtained by intelligent culture, selection, and 

 cross-breeding or hybridising, may be summed up in the words 

 of the late Dr Lindley as follows : " To increase the size of 

 flowers, or to improve their colour ; to approximate their form 

 to some assumed standard of perfection ; to enlarge the 

 foliage, as in esculents; to render tender plants hardy; to 

 make barren races fertile ; to improve flavour, by changing 

 acidity or austerity into sugary matter ; or to exchange early 

 for late varieties." These results have already been obtained, 

 and the further we advance in this noble field of intelligent 

 research and improvement, the fainter do its boundary-lines 

 appear. 



Proportionate Results of Cross-Breeding. The proportionate 

 results obtained by cross-breeding florists' flowers are interest- 

 ing, and are thus stated in the ' Gardeners' Magazine : ' "Mr 

 Keynes of Salisbury sows every year, and has done for many 

 years past, 30,000 Dahlia seeds, and has averaged about ten 

 named flowers for the last twenty years or more a small per- 

 centage, equal to one-thirtieth per cent : in this case, however, it 

 would seem as if many good flowers must be lost, for 30,000 

 seedlings ought to give at least thirty varieties worth naming, . 

 or say one-tenth per cent. The late Mr John Salter estimated 

 that seedling Chrysanthemums worth naming averaged one in 

 every 2000 plants, or one-twentieth per cent. Mr Downie 

 grows 500 Pentstemons or Phloxes to get ten first-rate novel- 

 ties, this being at the high rate of two per cent. In the raising 

 of plants that admit of careful manipulation, the rate is still 

 higher the result, no doubt, of the control the raiser exercises. 

 In the case of Dahlias, Hollyhocks, and Chrysanthemums, the 

 raiser has not much control, but he selects the seed parent and 

 watches over the growth of the seed, which is under control to 

 some extent. There are cases in which the cross-breeder goes 

 direct to his work, and having in his mind's eye exactly what 

 he wants, insures it right off; but this is not an everyday 

 business." 



