24 



The Weekly Florists' Review* 



May 13, 1909. 



PEONIES 



150,000 Cut Blooms 

 May 15 to July 1 



Large White, $8.00 per 100. Medium White and Pink, $4.00 per 100 



W. A. HAMMOND, Richmond,Va. 



Mention The Review when you write 



PLANT DEVELOPMENT. 



[Concluded from page 11.] 



looks into as well as at a plant — is the 

 most potent of plant breeders. 



Hybridization. 



Much stress is laid on the importance 

 of hybridization as an order of develop- 

 ment; much more can be said — much 

 more need be said — in the interest of the 

 craft, as you fellows who are courting 

 flora's mystic favors fully understand. 



"When hybridization was defined as a 

 cross between species, the result of which 

 is a mule, a creation incapable of repro- 

 duction, we could only regard it as the 

 parent of monstrosities. But since the 

 more recent definition of the word mak- 

 ing it include a cross between varieties, 

 we most heartily accept it as an impor- 

 tant agent in the development of the va- 

 rious classes of plants, in which we are 

 all interested. But the improvements 

 should have been given to cross-fertili- 

 zation rather than hybridization. Call 

 it what we choose, the result is the same. 



The rose, the florist 's friend, to a great 

 extent his source of profit, the almost 

 universal favorite, the flower that is 

 loved by all, the poet of the floral king- 

 dom, from whence did it come? The 

 story is too long to tell. It need not be 

 told. Its life's history is known by all 

 who can appreciate beauty and fragrance. 

 There can be but one answer, and that is 

 indefinite. 



Hybridization is the active principle 

 that brought together the species which 

 have been known for 2,500 years. It 

 transformed stamens into petals, giving 

 to the world of beauty its double flow- 

 ers and strange combination of colors, 

 and enhanced the fragrance of all forms 

 that did not lose their pistils in the trans- 

 formation. "When they do the flower is 

 no longer fragrant, as that vital element 

 is the active principle of the seminal 

 emissions which are the flower's voice to 

 the iYisect, bidding it come to the wed- 

 ding feast. 



But what is hybridization, a science or 

 an art? It is both, and it is neither. 

 This may seem a strange anomaly. The 

 bringing together of the two active prin- 

 ciples that form the current of life is 

 a scientific fact, but it cannot be re- 



duced to a practice that will insure a 

 particularly desired result. I have never 

 yet known of an instance where the hy- 

 bridist sought to procure a certain result 

 and obtained it. The results are oft- 

 times most happy — all that can be de- 

 sired — only they were not what were ex- 

 pected or hoped for. 



The carnation appeals to us for recog- 

 nition, and the same law applies to its 



The editor Is pleased 

 \7ben a Reader 

 presents bis Ideas 

 on any subject treated In 



cVt^ 



As experience Is the best 

 teacher, so do ^e 

 learn fastest by a^ 

 exchanee of experiences. 

 Many valuable points 

 are broueht out 

 by discussion. 



Good penmanship, spelling and gram- 

 mar, though desirable, are not neces- 

 sary. Write as you would talk when 

 doing your best. 



WB SHALL. BK GLAD 

 TO HEAR FROM TOU. 



development as governs all other crea- 

 tions, and the same results follow. There 

 is more fascination in growing the carna- 

 tion from seed than in growing the rose. 

 The period of growth is shorter and re- 

 sults more interesting because more va- 

 ried and more quickly obtained. 



It is more than fifty years since the 

 carnation was introduced to me as a flo- 

 rist's flower and the recollection is as 

 vivid as if but yesterday. During that 

 period its development has made rapid 

 strides, and the ii'dications are that the 



limit of its perfection has not been 

 reached, and may not be during the pres- 

 ent century. The carnation and I had 

 our first meeting, where grown as an in- 

 dustry, in the greenhouses of the late 

 John Humphries, at the corner of "Wash- 

 ington and De Kalb avenues, Brooklyn. 



At that time there were but two varie- 

 ties grown to any great extent, La Purity 

 and President DeGraw; and the pride 

 that Mrs. Humphries manifested in show- 

 ing these that, to use her language, ' ' My 

 old man knows best how to grow," is a 

 precious memory. As this was my first 

 visit to a greenhouse where plants were 

 grown for the sake of their flowers, and 

 where I could see a "whole house" full 

 of carnations, my surprise was ill con- 

 cealed, and Mrs. Humphries saw, only too 

 plainly, the rustic she had as a guest, 

 and, to her surprise, a customer. Mrs. 

 Humphries' modesty was only equaled by 

 her frankness, and she advised me to 

 visit Flatbush, where, she said, ' ' they had 

 big houses, while John's were only small, 

 but we try to care for them. ' ' 



In good time a friend escorted me to 

 Flatbush, where Dailledouze, Zeller, 

 Gard, Bennett, Davidson and Augustus 

 Messenburg, at that time the pansy king, 

 gave me a hearty welcome, and the, 

 seemingly, fields of carnations were an in- 

 spiration. 



The good work has gone on; the car- 

 nation has developed from a luxury to a 

 necessity — the end is not yet. The latest 

 developments show most conclusively that 

 the limit of its possibilities is far off, 

 as may be seen from the fact that its 

 wonderful beauty is accompanied by 

 vigor of constitution. 



Sports. 



Before taking up the subject of plant 

 development through the agency of 

 sports, in detail, it should be clearly un- 

 derstood that I am in the most perfect 

 harmony with Ernest Heckel's theory re- 

 garding the "soul cell" in plants, not 

 a human but a plant soul, a vital prin- 

 ciple analogous to the human mind, which 

 is adapted to its necessities, with power 

 to will and to act in harmony with the 

 animal creation; that it has power of 

 adaptation to environment, or, in other 

 words, to adapt itself to changed condi- 



