244 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



Dbcbmbeb 13, 1006. 



dency at some time to produce a white 

 sport. The rose we know as American 

 Beauty has produced two pink sports — 

 American Belle and Queen of Edgely — 

 and it is not too much to expect that 

 from these if largely grown would 

 emerge a white sport. 



From the rose Safrano came the yel- 

 low sport, Isabella Sprunt, and from 

 Perle des Jardins came Sunset; from the 

 latter, I believe, came Lady Dorothea; 

 from Golden Gate came Ivory; from Bon 

 Silene came the striped rose, American 

 Banner, which in addition to the change 

 in flower showed a marked change in 

 foliage, being decidedly rugose. The lat- 

 ter characteristic is slowly disappearing 

 under propagation; in fact, has almost 

 vanished at the present time. Caprice, 

 Striped La France and other striped 

 roses coming from neutral tinted sorts, 

 coupled with the fact that the other 

 sports enumerated follow in the same 

 line, are suflBcient warrant for the be- 

 lief that the combination which resulted 

 in the parent sorts laid the foundation 

 for the sports which resulted from them, 

 and that the manner of growth had no 

 part in it as a prime cause. 



Cycle in Bouvardia. 



The sporting cycle in bouvardia is 

 very interesting and in results it exactly 



first on the market the other name was 

 dropped. The original stock of B. ele- 

 gans in both cases was purchased from 

 Peter Henderson and the conclusion ar- 

 rived at then was that the elements of 

 change were contained in the plants, and 

 that it would occur under any circum- 

 stances. 



Subsequently a double white and a 

 double pink variety were produced as 

 sports, and later a dwarf variety, White 

 Bouquet, sported from B. Vreelandii 

 with William Bock, of Cambridge, Mass., 

 who retained the old nomenclature (Vree- 

 landii), having the same flowers as the 

 parent, but a dwarf, bushy habit, about 

 a foot high when in flower. 



The fact that these sports were pro- 

 gressive in color leads to the belief that 

 the cause for their appearance was with- 

 in the plant rather than that their com- 

 ing was brought about by outside forces. 

 As bcruvardias are largely propagated by 

 root cuttings, it strengthens this belief. 



Salvia and Abutilon. 



An instance where at a bound a white 

 sport issued from a scarlet variety is 

 found in Salvia splendens alba. From 

 Salvia splendens, at the base of the tube 

 in the latter is always found a bleached 

 white, which extends less or more beyond 

 the sheath; therefore, the white sport 



The Aristocrat of Plant Arrangements. \ 



parallels the examples set forth relating 

 to the rose. From B. Hogarth, a deep 

 scarlet variety, issued B. elegans, a 

 lighter-colored form, and from that is- 

 sued B. Davidsonii, a pure white. It is 

 interesting to note that two white sports 

 originated at the same time, one in 

 Greenville, now Jersey City, N. J., with 

 Mr. Vreeland and offered as B. Vree- 

 landii, the other B. Davidsonii. They 

 were identical and as the Davidsonii was 



seems a natural progression, as the sub- 

 sequent striped sport is. 



The double > abutilon, a* sport from A. 

 Thompsonii and identical in its varie- 

 gated foliage and color of flowers, is the 

 only case of sporting which I can recall 

 in that plant, although widely grown. 



Progression in Colors. 



The carnation sports are numerous and 

 here again they are progressive. I can 



not recall, for instance, where a yellow 

 issued from a red or white, or a white 

 from a yellow or a crimson. It is when 

 neutral shades are reached that sporting 

 begins. The same is true of chrysanthe- 

 mums and to a lesser extent of dahlias, 

 both of which are very prolific in sports. 

 It seems to be along well-defined lines 

 of color changes then that sporting fol- 

 lows, and the layman may well be par- 

 doned when he arrives at the conclusion 

 that it is in the blood and is not brought 

 about by growing conditions. If the lat- 

 ter theory was correct it seems to me 

 there would be no limit to sports, while 

 the limitations seem to be arbitrarily 

 fixed, which is not the case with seminal 

 reproduction. 



When Habit Changes. 



Another phase of sporting is when the 

 habit of the plant is changed, some ex- 

 amples of which I have alluded to pre- 

 viously. Climbing roses issue frequently 

 from dwarf sorts, particularly in the 

 monthly class. As far as I can recall, 

 the flower in such cases is always iden- 

 tical with the parent. In the hybrid per- 

 petual, and hybrid tea classes, too, climb- 

 ing sports are produced, but there is a 

 difference very marked from the monthly 

 sports. The latter are easily fixed and 

 never run back, while the others to the 

 best of my knowledge are never abso- 

 lutely fixed, and thus are constant rever- 

 sions, temporary and permanent, in in- 

 dividual plants. 



The foliage sports are many, but I will 

 only mention one, viz., the Golden Bedder 

 coleus, which resulted as a sport from 

 Lady Burrill, a variety with harlequin 

 markings of dark red and yellow. It has 

 never reverted. 



While on the subject of coleus, I can- 

 not forbear from referring to a marked 

 instance of the occurrence, wide apart, 

 of a similar break in this plant. The 

 golden-leaved coleus originated in Eng- 

 land and was imported by Peter Hender- 

 son. Before the plants arrived seedlings 

 raised from seed saved on the place from 

 the old, dark-leaved sorts developed some 

 golden varieties. 



Seed Sports. 



In Prof. Corbett's paper, already 

 quoted from, he says : * ' Burpee 's dwarf 

 lima bean is a good example of a sport 

 where the habit of the plant was marked- 

 ly changed." This brings us into the 

 realm of sieed sports, wider and more 

 complex than the other, and I do not 

 mean to explore it to any extent. 



Prof. Bailey is authority for the state* 

 ment that: "Bud variation and seed 

 variation are one in kind ; ' ' and again : 

 "I am ready to say that I believe bud 

 variation to be one of the most signifi- 

 cant and important phenomena of veget- 

 able life, and that it is due to the same 

 causes, operating in essentially the same 

 way, which underlie all variations in the 

 plant world." Again he observes: "I 

 want to express my conviction that mere 

 sports are rarely useful. Sports are no 

 doubt the result of very unusual or com- 

 plex stimuli or of unwonted re^angibil- 

 ity of the energy of growth, and not hav- 

 ing been induced by conditions which act 

 uniformly over a course of time they are 

 likely to be transient." Again: "The 

 vexed questions associated with bud vari- 

 ation are not yet greatly elucidated." 

 Again: "All these conclusions prove the 

 unwisdom of endeavoring to account for 

 the evolution of all the forms of life 

 upon any single hypothesis; and they il- 

 lustrate with greater emphasis the com- 

 plexity of even the fundamental forces in 



