250 



f! si ARCH, 1909. 



HORTICULTURE. 



PLANT BREEDING AS A 

 RECREATION. 



By R. H. Lock. 



I am afraid the Compilers of the 

 Dimbula Desk Book, who asked me 

 for a short article on plant-breeding, 

 will be disappointed when they see my 

 title. No doubt they expected momen- 

 tous sentences on the improvement of 

 Dimb ula's staple crop. Well, I am not 

 going into all the reasons which make 

 the improvement of tea by breeding 

 methods an undertaking of quite stu- 

 pendous difficulty. Moreover, even if 

 I were hawking a variety of the most 

 super-execllent flush and flavour, I 

 doubt whether Dimubla planters would 

 be prepared to dig up their present 

 bushes and start all over again. 



So I am going to confine myself to a 

 few words about what can be done by 

 any lover of flowers in any garden, 

 however small. For myself I know of 

 few more pleasurable [occupations than 

 this of aiding, or even, as one may 

 sometimes think, thwarting Nature in 

 the production of new kinds of plants. 



The tools of this craft are few and 

 simple. A small pair of forceps or 

 tweezers is required to extract the 

 stamens from a flower under oper- 

 ation. Bags made of muslin, or of 

 paper rendered waterproof by soaking 

 in paraffin, are necessary to prevent the 

 interference of insect visitors. String 

 and labels— the labels that I use are of 

 a bright scarlet colour and visible from 

 afar— and in the case of the more serious 

 observer, a note book, complete the tale 

 of plant-breeding requisites. 



The pursuit which I am venturing to 

 recommend has for its object the produc- 

 tion of new kinds of flowers, by com- 

 bining together the characters of two 

 or more distinct strains. The combin- 

 ation can be made by dusting the pistil 

 or receptive part of one flower with 

 the pollen or fertilizing powder taken 

 from another. When this process has 

 been carried out successfully, the for- 

 mer flower gives rise to a fruit, the 

 seeds of which develop into plants with 

 all kinds of new potentialities. 



One or two precautions must be taken 

 ;f we are to make certain of success. 

 The plant's own pollen must be pre- 

 vented from reaching the receptive sur- 



face ; and this can usually only be done 

 by removing the anthers from the 

 flower before they have had time to 

 burst and shed their pollen abroad. In 

 many cases the anthers open whilst 

 the flower is still a bud, and then we 

 are obliged to force the bud open in 

 order to remove them. Afterwards the 

 emasculated flower must be covered 

 with a paper or muslin bag to ward off 

 insect visitors. 



The removal of the anthers is most 

 easily done with forceps, and the same 

 tool may be used for dusting on the 

 proper pollen Avhen the flower is ready 

 to receive it, a whole stamen or anther 

 being carried from the pollinating 

 parent to the sesd parent and applied to 

 its stigma. The covering bag is taken 

 off temporarily during the pollinating 

 process and afterwards replaced, and 

 should not be removed again until the 

 fruit has set. At the time of making 

 the cross a label should be attached 

 bearing the names or descriptions of the 

 parents. 



The seeds obtained in this way by 

 crossing may or may not grow into 

 something new and beautiful. Very 

 frequently it is nescessary to wait for 

 a second generation before any striking 

 novelties make their appearance. If 

 the seeds of the cross-bred plant are 

 gathered, and carefully preserved and 

 sown, the plants which now develop are 

 almost certain to exhibit quite novel 

 combinations of the colours and other 

 characteristics of their parents; and if 

 the operator is lucky he may be re- 

 warded with a new strain of plants of 

 real beauty and value, and one which 

 in some eases, by careful selection, can 

 be got to breed true. 



We may try our hand in this way 

 upon almost any kind of flower which 

 already exists in more than one variety. 

 Or we may make the attempt to cross 

 together a pair of distinct species ; but 

 in this latter case the result is much 

 more doubtful. The most remarkable 

 result obtained in this manner by an 

 amateur in Ceylon is to be seen in the 

 beautiful series of shoe flowers raised 

 by Mr. T. C. Huxley when in residence 

 upon Peradeniya Estate. A certain 

 amount of success is now being met 

 with in the attempt to grow hybrid to- 

 bacco plants in the Peradeniya Gardens. 



As a hobby this kind of work has 

 much to recommend it to all but the 

 exceptionally active. It is both pleasant 



