1S6 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



LJNLuich 23, 1912. 



EDITORIAL NOTICE. 



ADVERTISEMENTS should be scot to the PUB- 

 LISHER, 41, Wellington Street, Covent Garden, 



W* C- 



Letters lor Publication, as well as '^f*™^ " Aoc' 

 tor wafliinr. should be addressed to the KDI lOR^, 

 41 Wellington Street, Covent Garden, London. 



Communications should be written on ONI si»R only or 

 the paper, sent as early in the week as possible and duly 

 signed by the writer. If desired, the signature will not be 

 printed, but kept as a guarantee of good faith. 



Special Notice to Correspondents. — 1 he Editors do not 

 unitertake to pay for any contributions or illustrations, or 

 to return unused communications or illustrations, unless by 

 special arrangement. The Editors do not hold themselves 

 responsible /or any opinions expressed by their correspond 

 dents . 



Local News.— Correspondents will greatly oblige by sealing to 

 th* Ed tots early intelligence of local events likely to be of 

 interest to our readers, or of any matters which it is desirable 

 to bring under the notice of horticulturists. 



^lustration*. - The Editors will be glad to receive and to select 

 photi 'graphs or drawings, suitable for reproduction, of 

 gardens or of remarkable plants, flowers, trees, &c. % but 

 they cannot be responsible for loss or injury. 



Newspaper s.— Correspondents sending newspapers should be 

 careful to mark the paragraphs they ivish the Editors to see. 



Hence it is that even with such plants shape— P. obconica has sported also into 



which, by common con- the inevitable double. The first example 



of doubling appeared with Messrs. Vil- 

 morin in 1901, and, curiously enough, has 

 not as yet occurred elsewhere, though it 

 may be predicted with confidence that it 



as P. sinensis, 



sent, is regarded as a pure species, we 

 have no certain knowledge of tli3 nature of 

 the internal changes which express them- 

 selves in enhanced beauty and size of 

 flower, greater vigour, changed shape and will 

 colour of leaf ; in short, in an almost in- 

 finite variety of ways. 



We may therefore leave aside for the 

 time being any attempt to unravel the 

 skein of causes at work in the production 



With 



the purity or hybridity of the " species * 



ini 



tious attitude. That P. obconica is not a 

 hybrid in the ordinary sense seems per- 

 fectly clear. No matter what be tha other 



im 



APPOINTMENTS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. 



TUESDAY, MARCH 26- 



Bournemouth Spring Fl. Sh. (2 days). 



WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27— 



Roy. Hort. Soc. General Exam. Liverpool Hort. Assoc. 

 Sh. (2 days). Roy. Botanic Soc. meet. 



THURSDAY, MAR H 28— 



Torquay Dist. Gard. Assoc. Spring Fl. Sh. 



SATURDAY, MARCH 30- 



Soc. Francaise d'Hort. de Londres Ann. Dinner, 



Average Mean Temperaturk for the ensuing week 

 deduced from observations during the last Fifty Years 

 at Greenwich— 433 \ 



Actual Ti-mi'kratckks: — 



London.— Wednesday, March 20 (6 p.m.): Max. 47°; 



Min. 35 u . 



Gardenets' Chronicle Office, 41, Wellington Street, 

 Covent Garden, London —Thursday, March 21 

 (10 a.m.) : Bar. 29'0 W ; Temp. 53^; Weather— 

 Dull. 



Provinces.— Wednesday, March 20: Max 45° Ireland 



S.W. ; Min. 34° Sco laid, N. 



SALES FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. 



MONDAY and WEDNESDAY - 



Rose Trees, Fruit Trees, Perennials, Liliums, Trained 

 Bay Trees, Palms, &c, at 12.30, at Stevens's Auction 

 Rooms, 38, King Street, Covent Garden, London. 



MONDAY and FRIDAY- 



Perennials and H<rbacems Plants, Hardy Bulbs, &c, 

 at 12 ; Roses and Punt Trees at l.'K), at 67 & 68, Cheap- 

 side, E.G., by Protheroe & Morris. 



WEDNESDAY— 



Japa iese Lilies and Hardy Bulbs, Herbaceous and 

 Border Plants, a 12; Roses and Fruit Trees, at 1.30; 

 Palms and Plants at 5 ; at 67 & 68, Cheapside, E.C., by 

 Protheroe & Morris. 



THURSDAY and FRIDAY— 



The "O^kdene" collection of Orchids, at 67 & 68, 

 Cheapside, EX., by Protheroe & Morris, at 1. 



out, this fact does not preclude the possi- 

 bility of foreign pollen producing some 

 effecb ; for example, of both stimulating the 

 egg cells of P. obconica to develop and of 

 passing into those egg cells substances 



of new forms from old, and devote our- 

 selves, in the present instance, to a con- m 

 sideration of the course of evolution in a offspring, if any are obtained are pure P. 



particular plant. The example which we 

 choose is that of P. obconica, the history 

 of which has been tracad in a singularly 

 able manner by Mr. A. W. Hill (assistant 

 director Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew), in 

 the current number of the Journal of 

 Genetics. 



Except in one particular, P. obaonica is 

 an ideal subject for historical research. Its 

 annals are short, though by no means 

 simple. The order of evolutionary events 

 which P. obconica has undergone during 

 its 33 years cultivation in Europe are 

 not obscured by the mists of time. The 

 men are still alive who have raised 

 from the somewhat stiff, small, pale-lilac, 

 yellow-eyed flower the large-flowered and 



obconica. Nevertheless, as Mr. Hill points 



which may modify the course of develop- 

 ment of the "parthenogenetic" eggs. This 

 hypothesis of a " semi-parthenogenesis " 

 is not to be dismissed lightly ; nor is it to 

 be accepted till more evidence is forth- 

 coming. Students of genetics are now 

 busy with P. obconica, and we hope that 

 success, equal to that which has fallen to 

 the florists in improving the species, may 

 attend their efforts to discover the causes 

 which have admitted of that improvement. 

 We recommend all who are interested 



brilliantly-coloured strains of the present in the subject of the evolution of florists' 

 day. They have taken out the yellow eye flowers to read Mr. Hill's excellent paper, 

 and replaced it by a rosy or magenta and we suggest to the editors of the 

 centre ; they have doubled the size of the Journal of Genetics the advisability of re- 

 petals and frayed out their edges ; they printing the article separately, possibly 

 have produced pure-white forms, and races 

 with rose, carmine, and violet-blue 

 flowers ; in short, they have changed it in 

 almost every particular, except with re- 

 spect to its objectionable skin-irritating 

 hairs. 



As appears to have been the case with 

 Primula sinensis and w T ith other plants, P. 

 obconica was somewhat shy of change 



without the plates, in order that it may 

 be available to many horticulturists who 

 are not in a position to subscribe to the 

 Journal. 



The 



It is a melancholy fact that 

 Deteriora- not a few inland golf links 

 tion of show, after a few years use, 

 Golf Links. mar fced deterioration. The 



when first introduced. For some years way through the greens comes to support 



• after Maries, whilst collecting for Messrs. a ranker grass, with the consequence that 



^^o „« „„ w wlnle Veitch, brought the chance seed in earth balls, even w T hen driven into th3 middle of 



Evolution wnge of horticulfcurar science from China in 1879, P. obconica clung to the fairway, lie close and badly. Not un- 



fascinatino- problem its modest lilac-yellow-eyed habit of flower, naturally, the average player makes tne 



There exists in the 



of 



Primula 



no more 



no mure lasumaiLiiig piuuicm •/ -* • — — * ■> — ^»- *r " i 



than that of the course and Then in 1886 white forms appeared in the most of the real grievance that his good 



obconica. mode of evo i ution f florists' Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, and in 

 flowers. The brilliant results of the florists' the following years— as chronicled by Mr. 



shots are punished. But worse remains to 

 be said. Worms seem to multiply even 



slight faster thai links themselves, and there can 



art are patent in every garden, but the luchard Dean in these pages — a slight taster thai links themselves, ana tuwc v«« 

 causes which underlie the production of purple appeared round the eye. Messrs. be no two opinions of the disastrous effects 



* OT*« ■ *.. m a a. m 1*1.-1 1 -*-■• . «. II « 4" 1f\ Tl 



improved strains are secret and unknown 

 alike to the florist and to the man of 

 science. 



Vilmorin obtained a pure-white, large- 

 flowered strain in 1896, and it is note- 

 worthy that this form, like others raised 



An understanding of the causes which previously, possessed fimbriated instead 

 lead to the amelioration of cultivated of notched petals. Rose-pink forms were 

 plants is rendered the more difficult in the fixed as early as 1896, in which year Messrs. 



which they produce. It is no consolation 

 to the golfer to be told of the beneficent 

 work of worms in improving soil. The 

 golfer has no use for improved soil — except 

 on the greens. What he recognises is that 

 the greasy casts spoil the game during the 



case of many species by the complications Sutton exhibited them at a meeting of the winter and spring months and also maK 



the links unsightly. 



There seems to be little doubt that the 

 deterioration of many inland links is to be 



due to cross-breeding; but even in the R.H.S. Mr. Ware also in the same year 



case of those plants which are free from obtained flowers of a " warm, rose tint." 



the suspicion of being hybrids, we have no In 1903 Vesuve, a red variety, was pro- w 



sure knowledge of the causes of the varia- duced by Messrs. Rivoire, and in 1904 attributed to the consolidating effect pro 



tions which provide the starting-point for Messrs. Barr exhibited a deep lilac-crim- duced by the tramp of the golfing legions: 



the florists 7 work of improvement. To 



attribute the new forms to selection is Mr. Dickson, head gardener to the 



only to state a method and not to dis- Duchess of Bedford, has contributed 



cover a cause. All the florist means by notably to the extension of the colour 



selection is the picking out of forms which range in P. obconica, by producing first a 



have a new and desirable quality and small blue variety (1904) and then in 1906 a gritty material. 



son named Crimson King. 



breeding from those forms till that quality larger-flowered blue. 



occasionally it is emphasised oy w*« *~ 

 judicious use of artificial fertilisers. 



The remedy in the case of "heavy 

 going "—apart from drainage— consists in 

 the unsparing, though judicious use o 



of course, is to 

 available and 



Sand, 



is fixed and, it may be, made more appa- 

 rent. 



In addition to the characters which we 

 have enumerated — flower-colour, size, and 



be used whenever it is . 

 after an experienced person has deter- 

 mined, either by feel or by microscopic 



