378 



BUD-VARIATION. 



Chap. XI 



divided, and not acuminated. The petals are considerably larger, and 

 quite entire. There is also in the fresh state a conspicuous, large, oblong 

 gland, full of a viscid secretion, on the back of each of the calyciiie 

 segments." 



Althaea rosea.— A double yellow Hollyock suddenly turned one year into 

 a pure white single kind; subsequently a branch bearing the original 

 double yellow flowers reappeared in the midst of the branches of the single 

 white kind.' 21 



Pelargonium.— These highly cultivated plants seem eminently liable to 

 bud-variation. I will give only a few well-marked cases. Gartner has 

 seen 22 a plant of P. zonale with a branch having white-edged leaves, 

 which remained constant for years, and bore flowers of a deeper red than 

 usual. Generally speaking, such branches present little or no difference 

 in their flowers : thus a writer 23 pinched off the leading shoot of a seedling 

 P. zonale, and it threw out three branches, which differed in the size and 

 colour of their leaves and stems ; but on all three branches " the flowers were 

 identical," except in being largest in the green-stemmed variety, and small- 

 est in that with variegated foliage : these three varieties were subsequently 

 propagated and distributed. Many branches, and some whole plants, of a 

 variety called compaction, which bears orange-scarlet flowers, have been 

 seen to produce pink flowers. 24 Hill's Hector, which is a pale red variety, 

 produced a branch with lilac flowers, and some trusses with both red and 

 lilac flowers. This apparently is a case of reversion, for Hill's Hector 

 was a seedling from a lilac variety. 25 Of all Pelargoniums, Eollisson's 

 Unique seems to be the most sportive ; its origin is not positively known, 

 but is believed to be from a cross. Mr. Salter, of Hammersmith, states 26 

 that he has himself known this purple variety to produce the lilac, the 

 rose-crimson or conspicuum, and the red or coccineum varieties ; the latter 

 has also produced the rose $ amour ; so that altogether four varieties have 

 originated by bud variation from Eollisson's Unique. Mr. Salter remarks 

 that these four varieties "may now be considered as fixed, although they 

 " occasionally produce flowers of the original colour. This year coccineum 

 " has pushed flowers of three different colours, red, rose, and lilac, upon 

 " the same truss, and upon other trusses are flowers half red and half 

 f ' lilac." Besides these four varieties, two other scarlet Uniques are known to 

 exist, both of which occasionally produce lilac flowers identical with Eollis- 

 son's Unique ; 27 but one at least of these did not arise through bud- variation, 

 but is believed to be a seedling from Eollisson's Unique. 28 There are, also, 

 in the trade 29 two other slightly different varieties, of unknown origin, 

 of Eollisson's Unique : so that altogether we have a curiously complex case 



'<#*■ 



this 



21 ' Eevue Horticole,' quoted in ' Gard. 

 Chron.,' 1845, p. 475. 



22 ' Bastarderzeugung,' 1849, s. 76. 



23 'Journal of Horticulture,' 1861 

 p. 336. 



24 W. P. Ayres, in ' Gardener's Chron ,' 

 1842, p. 791. 



25 W. P. Ayres, idem. 



26 ' Gardener's Chron.,' 1861, p. %8. 



2 7 Idem, 1861, p. 945. 



28 W. Paul, in < Gardener's Chron., 

 1861, p. 968. 



29 Idem, p. 945. 



tiie to 



