December 13, 1006. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



245 



Birchbark Box of Cyclamens and Selas^inella. 



the progression of organic nature." 

 Again : * ' Now this matter of bud varia- 

 tion has been a most puzzling one to all 

 writers upon evolution who have touched 

 upon it. It long ago seemed to me to be 

 inexplicable, but it is no more un- 

 intelligible than seminal variation of 

 plants. ' ' 



These quotations from "The Survival 

 of the Unlike" are introduced to show 

 how contradictory even an eminent au- 

 thority on the subject can be, at least so 

 it appears to me, a layman. If I under- 

 stand him at all, it is to the effect that 

 all sports are the result mainly of the 

 conditions under which the subjects are 

 grown; that all variations are of a 

 sportive character ; that the difference be- 

 tween well-cultivated and poorly-culti- 

 vated plants is a sportive one. 



The average florist and gardener is 

 hardly prepared to accept that view ; per- 

 haps the reasoning is too subtle for him 

 to follow. He knows that no cultivation 

 of which he is master can make a poor 

 variety as good as a good one; he knows 

 that sports, as he understands them, are 

 8pora(fic and many believe that by a care- 

 ful study of heredity on the part of 

 scientists the law governing sports 

 might 'be discovered. 



The Dwarf Bean. 



But to return to the lima bean. Here 

 again we find a cycle of change. Three 

 sports appeared within a very short 

 time, almost simultaneously, viz., Kum- 

 merle's, subsequently called Dreer's; 

 Henderson's, the latter appearing with 

 several growers at the same time, and 

 Burpee's. Of the origin of the first two 

 I have no specific knowledge; they 

 merely happened; but as to the last, the 

 raiser (I had almost said the creator) 

 claimed that a horse trod on a plant 

 while it was young, that it never grew 

 to be a climber, and that the beans re- 

 produced dwarf plants. This was ganer- 

 ally known in the trade and more than 

 one grower crippled vine plants in an 

 effort to develop a dwarf, but without 

 success. 



The White Plume celery is another 

 notable example of a seed sport, and 

 once the break came others followed. 



Fern Sports. 



I had almost forgotten to mention the 

 latest and most interesting forms of 

 sporting, viz., the ferns which have 

 sported from the Boston variety. If I 

 remember correctly, when that variety 

 first made its appearance, there was con- 

 siderable discussion as to what it really 

 was, and it was finally classified as a 

 sport from Nephrolepis exaltata. 



Darwin said: "Of all the causes 

 which induce variability, excess of food, 

 whether or not changed in nature, is 

 probably the most powerful." Here 

 again we have the food question. The 

 florist and gardener believes that the 

 amount of food which will bring his crop 



to the highest perfection is not excessive ; 

 possibly he is wrong. The excessive 

 amount is that which will cause deterior- 

 ation, and it is not under such condi- 

 tions that sports have appeared with him. 

 It might not serve any useful purpose, 

 yet it seems to promise an interesting 

 field of study for some of our scientists 

 to thoroughly examine into sports ob- 

 tained through bud variation under do- 

 mestication in an effort to clear away the 

 mists which now surround their origin. 



TROUBLE WITH MIGNONETTE. 



Can you tell us what to do with our 

 bench of mignonette? The seeds were 

 sown the latter part of July in solid beds 

 and we left three and four plants in 

 each hill. They were not pinched back, 

 as I was told we would get better blooms 

 by growing them that way, and now the 

 plants are three feet high and touch the 

 glass. We have bent them over, but 

 they keep growing up. The center stalk 

 is very strong and the side shoots are 

 about the size of a lead-pencil and we 

 can just see the bud in some of them, 

 while the center stalks have buds the 

 size of a silver quarter. The frost on 

 the glass will kill the buds. Now what 

 we would like to know is, shall we cut 

 the center shoots and thin the side shoots, 

 as they are very thick? Will the second 

 crop be all right? We feel worried about 

 it, as we have about 600 plants and if we 

 don't do something we will lose the en- 

 tire lot. A. E. & S. 



You do not say at what temperature 

 you have kept your mignonette. From 

 its present condition I would say that 

 it has been too high. After wintry 

 weather arrives and you have to depend 

 on artificial heat, with little opportunity 

 to give free ventilation, the temperature 

 at night should not be over 45 degrees, 

 and a few degrees lower will do no harm. 

 The time of sowing was all right, but 

 you should have left only one plant to a 



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One of the Staple Styles of Plant Hampers. 



