ON THE WATSONIA 



eighty miles from the Cape of Good Hope by Mr. 

 H. W. Arderne, of Cape Town. He took the plant 

 to his garden and in 1892 had a goodly colony of 

 the white flowers under cultivation. In due course 

 they were introduced, and gained a measure of 

 popularity among discriminating horticulturists, 

 chiefly because of the exquisite whiteness of the 

 flower. 



Meantime, however, the original species has not 

 been neglected, although comparatively little work 

 has been done, in this country at any rate, in the 

 cultivation of any of the Watsonias at the time my 

 experiments commenced. Possibly the flowers 

 would not have been prized but for the introduc- 

 tion of the white, as the others are rather dull and 

 not particularly attractive in color. 



Hybridizing The Watsonia 



I have never been able to determine clearly 

 whether the white variety named W. Ardernei in 

 honor of its discoverer is identical with the variety 

 introduced as W. O'Brieni. They are closely sim- 

 ilar, but it seems not to be clearly established as to 

 whether they come from the same stock, although 

 the individuals from which the two races have 

 developed were undoubtedly discovered indepen- 

 dently. 



On receiving the white Watsonia I planted it 

 on a damp piece of sandy land at Sebastopol, but 



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