112 BULBS AND TUBEROUS-BOOTED PLANTS. 



on all other subjects, said that it was produced at Ghent, 

 and was a cross between G. psittacinus and G. cardinalis. 

 However satisfactory this statement may have been to 

 florists in general, it . by no means settled the parentage 

 of that noble class. The late Hon. and Kev. William 

 Herbert, an acknowledged authority on bulbs, said Mr. 

 Van Houtte was in error, because, after repeated 

 attempts to hybridize these species he, Mr. Herbert, 

 could not succeed, consequently it was an impossibility, 

 and that Mr. Van Houtte must have been mistaken as 

 to the origin of G gandavensis. All the English author- 

 ities agreed with Mr. Herbert, and in every treatise on 

 the Gladiolus his opinion was quoted as correct. 



We can easily understand why results can be reached 

 in one country, that are impossible in another. The 

 difference in climatic influences are sufficient to prevent 

 in one case, what it is easy to accomplish in another. 

 Certain it is, that in the origin of G. gandavensis, a new 

 race began, and to it we are indebted for the fine garden 

 varieties now so extensively cultivated. While crosses 

 between this hybrid and the species are easily effected, 

 it has not been necessary to resort to further hybridiza- 

 tion to accomplish the most wonderful results. 



We wish, at this point, to correct the common error 

 of calling the new varieties that annually appear, "hy- 

 brids." They are not, in any sense, hybrids, and rarely 

 are they the results of cross-fertilization. They are 

 simply choice seedlings, creatures of accident. We have 

 raised from seed, either especially cross-fertilized, or 

 carefully selected from the best named sorts, or from 

 seed taken at random from our fields, in all, more than 

 a million corms ; among the number some of the best 

 known varieties are, Isaac Buchanan, Martha Washing- 

 ton, Bayard Taylor and Charlotte Cushman. In all 

 our efforts to produce a desired effect we have failed, 

 and, instead, we have been favored with some remarkably 



