124 HYBRIDISING AND CROSS-BREEDING. 



white flowers ; and in seedlings from these the colour breaks 

 out in a multitudinous series of blotchings, streaks, and mark- 

 ings of various shades, just as the primary colours red and 

 blue predominate, and are either condensed in small patches, 

 or suffused over the whole surface of the flower. In the show 

 Pelargonium we have scarlet (that is, very bright red), purple, 

 and rose or pale red in various proportions, every change in 

 proportion giving a different set of colours, and consequently 

 a new variety. In many plants the colours are always the 

 same ; but in every batch of seedlings the variations of these 

 colours, either in locality or unison, are really wonderful. This 

 type of variation has been aptly described as resembling that 

 of the kaleidoscope, in which the elements or coloured frag- 

 ments are always alike, but the arrangement different at every 

 revolution. Dr Denny thus writes on the blending of colours in 

 the case of cross-breeding varieties- of Pelargonium zonale and 

 P. inquinans (see Florist, 1872, p. 51): "My notes indicate 

 that the magenta shades are the result of the mixtures of pink, 

 or lilac and scarlet ; the magentas and scarlets produce various 

 shades of crimson and maroon, according to the depth of the 

 scarlets ; white and scarlet salmons ; and, strange to say, salmon 

 will not unfrequently result from the crossing of two * scarlets ; 

 but the extent of the blend, and the variations which result 

 from the mixture of colours, depend upon the respective con- 

 stitutions of the plants employed. Probably no blend at all 

 would result if the pollen parent possessed both a decided 

 colour and the greatest vigour. I find that the production of 

 a brilliant and novel colour is accompanied by a primitive form 

 of petal t which causes the difficulty in obtaining the combina- 

 tion of novel colour and good form." In the genus Narcissus 

 we have some curious changes effected in the flower, and 

 especially in the cup, by hybridisation, The late Dean Her- 

 bert produced a plant identical with N. incomparabilis by fer- 

 tilising the wild Yorkshire Daffodil (N. Pseudo-Narcissus) with 

 pollen of the Poets' Narcissus (N. poeticus) (see Bot. Reg. 1843, 

 p. 38). Everybody knows the Daffodil has an extinguisher- 



* I have noticed this phenomenon, and consider it due to the fact that the 

 colour, instead of being confined to the cuticle of the petal, becomes mixed 

 with the white ground, which normally lies beneath the layer of cells con- 

 taining the scarlet pigment. I also notice that salmon-coloured varieties, 

 resulting from a union of two scarlets, are apt to be striate more or less, 

 and the petals become scalded in bright sunshine. B. 



f It is doubtless the narrow petal which accounts for the richness or 

 novelty of colour, since, if the petal was a broad and rounded one, the 

 colour would be less vivid and distinct, simply because diffused over a 

 larger area. B. 



