ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF PLANTS. 451 



ately, in these cases the parentage of the offspring was not 

 preserved. 



The next flower with which I experimented was the 

 Hollyhock. I crossed numbers of these flowers in the 

 years 1853-7. A blush seedling crossed with White Globe, 

 with the view of obtaining better blush flowers, gave, 

 among others, 10 seedlings answering to this end. Fire- 

 ball Superb crossed with Metropolitan, with the view of 

 obtaining a better scarlet Hollyhock, gave one plant of the 

 character sought. A pink seedling crossed with Lizzie, 

 with the view of combining the bright colour of the former 

 with the quality of spike and flower of the latter, gave a 

 large number of seedlings, 23 of which were realisations, 

 more or less complete, of the object sought. These are 

 three cases selected from many of similar import. With 

 regard to the results in crossing the Hollyhock, I may add 

 that Mr Roake, of Clewer, at one time a most successful 

 raiser of seedlings, obtained three of his most marked 

 improvements, all differing in colour, from one fertilised 

 pod of seed, whereas with seedlings raised from seed pods 

 not fertilised he found the degree of progress slow and 

 uncertain. 



Some of my latest efforts in hybridising and cross- 

 breeding have been directed to Zonal Pelargoniums. 

 Attempts to hybridise the Zonal varieties with the Unique 

 have never succeeded ; and yet Mr Wills has obtained 

 hybrids between the Zonal and Ivy-leaved, species pro- 

 bably as distantly related. He tells me that he hybridised 

 some thousands of flowers without success, until he thought 

 of dipping the hybridised flowers into \vater after applying 

 the pollen, by which means he obtained seeds and seed- 

 lings, two of which, evidently hybrids, are now before the 

 public under the names of Willsii and Willsii rosea. My 

 experiments in cross-breeding have been numerous, but 

 having been pursued chiefly with my own unnamed seed- 

 lings, which are unknown, I have little that is tangible to 

 place before you. Two or three cases, however, in which 



