206 Wallich^s Pldntcc Asiaticce Ranores. 



much more likelihood of raising a great number of double flowers from the 

 seeds, if the flowers they are procured from were fertilised with the pollen 

 of seraidouble or nearly full double flowers, as many of these produce per- 

 fect anthers, though the flowers are nearly filled with petals : at any rate, 

 the more double the flowers are from which the pollen is procured, the 

 more chance there will be of obtaining fine-flowering seedlings. The head 

 of the carpella [the cluster of pointals] must be fully expanded, and a little 

 glutinous matter have been secreted upon the stigmas before they will be 

 fit to receive the pollen : if the pollen be applied to them before, it will be 

 of no use, as they are not far enough advanced to receive it ; that is the 

 reason why numerous plants cultivated in this country never produce any 

 seeds, the anthers being all dropped from the flower, before the stigma is 

 far enough advanced to receive fertilisation. This accounts for the nume- 

 rous hybrid productions in the G^eraniacese, where the anthers have gene- 

 rally dropped off" a day before the stigmas are sufficiently advanced to 

 receive impregnation : the stigmas are then as likely, if impregnated or set 

 at all, to be so from the pollen of a diiferent species, as from that of their 

 own. This is also the case with numerous other plants in botanic gardens, 

 where numerous natural mules spring up annually, particularly in Veronica, 

 ^conitum, Z)elphinium, »S'jmphytum, and many other genera. 



" In the next place, it is said, the seedlings all bear greatest resemblance 

 in colour of flower to the mother plant : this I have generally found the 

 reverse in Pelargonium, Amaryllis, and several other genera, the male 

 parent being generally most conspicuous in the mules; but the darkest 

 colour, whether in male or female, generally predominates : for instance, if 

 a fine yellow ranunculus was fertilised by a black one, I should expect to 

 find it produce bright crimson ; a scarlet with a white would bring various 

 shades of rose ; one of the yellow-flowered tuberous-rooted pelargoniums, 

 fertilised by a black one, brings either scarlet or crimson. To obtain fine new 

 varieties of ranunculus in colour, I would recommend the yellow to be 

 fertilised by black, the scarlet or crimson with white and yellow, and all 

 the most distant intermixtures : this would be the way to get fine and dis- 

 tinct varieties, and would be the means of introducing a new set of splendid 

 sorts." 



Orpheus Rose. One of the first-rate roses, well deserving a place in 

 every collection ; drawn in the nursery of Messrs. Whitley and Co., Fulham, 

 where were several fine plants of it in full flower at the same time, that 

 had been budded on common stocks at standard height. Flower, a good 

 size, and very double, of a fine red purple, and becoming darker after- 

 wards.^ — Wakefield's Paul Pry Carnation. Highly coloured. A crimson 

 bizarre. Flovrer large, very double, and handsomely variegated: petals 

 broad, and broadly ovate, rounded at the ends, spreading, of a pure white, 

 lined and variegated with a brilliant crimson and dark purple ; outer ones 

 much the broadest, becoming gradually narrower and smaller inwards. 

 7*. Qd. the pair in Mr. Hogg's priced list for 1830. 



WaUich,N., M.D. and P.H.D. F.R.S., &c. &c.. Superintendent of the 

 Honourable East India Company's Botanic Garden at Calcutta : Plantae 

 Asiaticae Rariores ; or. Descriptions and Figures of a select Number of 

 unpublished East India Plants. London, 1829. Fol. In Parts. 

 21. 105. each. 



Plants included in the first edition of the Hdrtus Brifdnnicus have a dagger (f) prefixed ; 

 those in the country, but not in that work, a star (*) ; the rest are not in the country. 



The present work consists of a selection of plants made chiefly from a 

 series of 1200 drawings, executed under Dr. Wallich's direction, by Indian 

 artists, at the Calcutta garden, and on his various journeys. It is surpass- 

 ingly well executed, and remarkably cheap. 



