THE WATSONIA 69 



until in the course of a few seasons we had 

 crossbred forms of multiple ancestry. 



There were strains of the white WatsoTiia in 

 them all, but also strains of the purplish and 

 pink species. 



By 1904 I had a crossbred colony of Watson- 

 ias numbering about fifty thousand seedlings. 

 This doubled in the succeeding season, and in 

 recent years the colony has attained the propor- 

 tion suggested by what has already been said 

 about the elimination of bulbs by the cord. 



Needless to say there is great variety among 

 these complex crossbred flowers. All of them 

 retain the essential characteristics of bulb and 

 stalk and manner of growth of the Watsonias. 

 But in their size of flower, and in various impor- 

 tant characteristics, they show wide departure 

 from either of the parent forms. 



Perhaps the most striking individual develop 

 ment is that of a pure white form of Watsonia 

 that has double flowers. This double Watsonia 

 is an unusual flower. The doubling has been 

 brought about, not by the transformation of sta- 

 mens, as in the case of a double rose or dahlia, 

 but by growing a new circle of petals outside the 

 old ones. This form of doubling, to be sure, is 

 not altogether anomalous. It occasionally takes 

 place in the case of the rose and the carnation. 



