1 86 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 481. 



grown at Cornell have proved, as a rule, to answer to the 

 descriptions in the catalogues, and intending buyers may 

 be safely directed to them for the choice of the color of 

 flower and habit of plant they prefer. So, too, with the 

 variegated-leaved Zonals, including the bronze Zonals. 

 But few of these latter are included in the Cornell collec- 

 tion. The flowering ones are interesting, in that their 

 flowers are of the primitive, narrow-petaled type, and a 

 comparison of them with the productions of later years 

 furnishes a comparison of the advance made. This con- 

 sists mainly in the rounding and enlarging of the general 

 form of the single flower and the filling out of the petal, so 

 that now the petals almost completely overlap and the 

 intervening spaces have disappeared. 



As early as 184.1 The Gardeners' Chronicle, of London, in 

 congratulating the public upon the advance already made 

 in the Zonal Geranium, said: "The long, narrow, flimsy 

 petals, moved by every breath of wind and separated to 

 their very base by broad open space, have been succeeded 

 by the beautiful compact flowers of the present day, with 

 broad short petals, so entirely overlying each other as to 

 leave scarcely an indentation in the outline of the flower." 

 The illustration on this page 

 shows the flowers which The 

 Gardeners' Chronicle then set 

 before its readers. It has to 

 do, perhaps, with the success 

 of the English growers that 

 they should at so early a 

 period have had before them 

 a distinct ideal. Moreover, 

 it is interesting to note that 

 the English and Continental 

 types tend toward the same 

 ideal of beauty, so much so 

 that Monsieur Dauchenay, in 

 the book already referred to, 

 has to choose other charac- 

 teristics than those of the 

 flowers to distinguish be- 

 tween certain of the races. 

 If a first place must be given 

 to races, several of which 

 produce such beautiful in- 

 dividuals, it will probably 

 be awarded to the English 

 round - flowered varieties, 

 brought to their present per- 

 fection by Cannell, Pearson 

 and other English growers. 

 They are beautiful in the size 

 and symmetry of both truss 

 and individual flower, and es- 

 pecially in the lighter tints of the red and of the orange scales. 

 And yet, if after having looked at a group of these flowers 

 the eye happens to fall upon one composed of the master- 

 pieces of the French growers — Bruant, Lemoine and others 

 — this judgment is apt to be questioned. If we may take 

 the Cornell collection as a fair representative of both, we 

 will say that the English have attained great beauty in the 

 lighter tints, and that the French, while not behind in 

 these, have produced some reds which for depth and bril- 

 liancy are superb. There is, by the way, probably no 

 floral subject to which these superlative terms, so much 

 misused, can so often aptly be applied as to the modern 

 Geranium flower. 



An interesting introduction of the French are the 

 "Panache," or "splashed" series. In these the various 

 tints of red are underlaid or mixed with white in the most 

 diverse manner, sometimes producing the effect of mere 

 spots of one color or the other, sometimes that of a grada- 

 tion from a light tint to a deep shade running from the 

 centre to the tip of the flower, or vice versa. An interest- 

 ing morphological development, and a somewhat uncom- 

 mon one, is that of the umbellule. A single flower of an 



Fig. 22. — The " improved " and " origi- 

 nal " forms of Pelargonium flowers 

 as illustrated over fifty years ago 

 in The Gardener^ Chronicle. 



umbel is raised above its companions by a stem that has 

 lengthened into a short stalk. As to the symmetry and size 

 of the plants themselves, those in the Cornell collection 

 are too young to allow of safe judgment. As the plants 

 began to flower, a feeling of disappointment was quite 

 general, which can hardly be explained now that it has 

 yielded to one of admiration. Perhaps the long stalks of the 

 flowers shocked at first ; perhaps the first colors to develop 

 were the least pleasing. In any case, if there is a fortunate 

 difference in opinion as to the relative beauty of various 

 flowers, there is none as to the beauty of the collection as a 

 whole. 



It would be invidious to recommend particular flowers 

 among so many beautiful ones ; and, again, the intending 

 purchaser may be sent to the catalogues of the reputable 

 growers for the color and habit of their choice. If the 

 Zonal Geranium is a somewhat formal flower, it cannot be 

 said of the simple-flowering varieties, as it can of the 

 double-flowering sorts, that the individuality of the indi- 

 vidual flower has been merged into that of the truss. As 

 to color, the range is not wide, embracing as it does only 

 the scales of red and orange, and running to white ; yet, 

 within these limits, it is very rich, offering from a pure 

 white or the mere suggestion of a tint or an iridescence, to 

 the deeper tones of its characteristic lines. Who knows 

 but the Zonal Geranium may sometime become as favor- 

 ite a flower here as it is in England, whence the London 

 correspondent of Garden and Forest could write a few years 

 ago (Garden and Forest, November 28th, 1894), referring to 

 Mr. Cannell's autumn exhibition of Zonal Pelargoniums : 

 " They are as delightful to look upon as is the return of 

 spring. ... I question if there is anything in the whole 

 range of garden exotics which has the same all-round 

 value as the race of Scarlet Geraniums " ? 



Cornell University. '*• ■J- ^« 



Cultural Department. 



The Hippeastrums. — III. 



HYBRIDS. 



T N the days of Dean Herbert many fine hybrids of Amaryllis 

 -*■ were raised, which, however, were mostly lost again. 

 About a hundred of these were described and many were 

 figured in the second edition of Sweet's British Floiver Gar- 

 den (1830). Dean Herbert, in his excellent work, A/nary Hi- 

 dacca (1837), enumerates and gives the parentage of thirty-one 

 of the finest hybrids raised by himself and others. The first 

 hybrid of which we have any knowledge is Hippeastrum Jolin- 

 sonii, raised by Mr. Johnson, an amateur, in 1810, from H. 

 Regime and H. vittatum. It is very robust, free- flowering and 

 beautiful, and still the most common of all Amaryllis in culti- 

 vation. A lover of Amaryllis usually starts with this one when 

 forming a collection, as it is easily grown, and it is not uncom- 

 mon for it to flower twice a year. The fragrant, showy flowers, 

 of which four to six are carried on a scape about eighteen 

 inches high, are deep cherry-red, banded with white. Scarcely 

 any other flower is so frequently seen, and in such prime con- 

 dition, in windows and gardens as this Amaryllis. Its abundant 

 tleep green strap-shaped leaves are usually fully developed 

 when the large trumpets open. In the Gulf region it is one of 

 the most common and highly prized garden flowers. It flour- 

 ishes luxuriantly in the open air as far north as southern 

 Missouri and the City of Washington, but requires a good 

 winter protection of ashes, sawdust or leaves. In the south 

 it forms in a few years large clumps which often produce 

 twenty to thirty flower-scapes at the same time and make beau- 

 tiful masses of bloom. This robust hybrid is a good example 

 of the survival of the fittest, as all the early weaker-growing 

 kinds were lost soon after their introduction. 



Another noteworthy cross still in cultivation is H. Acker- 

 manni, raised in 1835 from H. aulicum platypetalum crossed 

 with H. psittacinum. It is of fine open form and marks a great 

 advance on all its predecessors. A few years later H. Acker- 

 manni pulcherrimum was obtained from H. aulicum, crossed 

 with H. Johnsonii. Its beautiful, symmetrical form and good 

 substance, in addition to its dazzling red color, gave a consider- 

 able impulse to the culture of these wonderful bulbous plants. 



I have before me three colored plates of Amaryllis pub- 

 lished in Flore des Serres about forty years ago, each plate 

 showing four different hybrids raised by the late Louis van 



