22 
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
have come variegates. 'Now Violet Hill was bred for variegation, 
and was planted out at Messrs. Henderson's establishment at St. 
John's "Wood in the spring of 1864, with a view to its breaking 
into variegation, which it did not do ; but it was selected, and subse- 
quently sent out, for its flower, and on account of its dwarf habit 
of growth. 
My notes would furnish innumerable examples in support of the 
theories I have founded upon them, did time admit of my going 
further into detail. I would observe that I have purposely quoted 
the results of crossings which produced varieties that have been sent 
out by Mr. W. Paul, that they might, if desired, be referred to, and 
compared with their parents. 
A close analogy seems to me to exist between the vegetable and 
the animal kingdoms as regards the ill effects produced by breeding 
in-and-in, and the good resulting from crossing opposites, for I find 
it to be necessary for the maintenance of improvement in the 
flower, and the constitution of my seedlings, to introduce fresh 
varieties to breed from annually; and I find that crossing two 
flowers of the finest qualities does not produce such satisfactory 
results as where one of much inferior quality is employed. Of 
course it will be inferred from my previous observations that I use 
the superior quality flower as pollen-parent. I am of opinion that 
the decadence in many of our old florists' flowers is owing to their 
having been bred in-and-in, and from the repeated crossing of 
flowers of a precisely similar strain and qualities, with the object 
(and probably supposed only means) of reproducing flowers possess- 
ing certain peculiarities in markings or form, in accordance with 
the rigid rules prescribed for these flowers. 
As regards the condition of the atmosphere that favours the 
effecting of difficult crosses, it would be no easy matter to note with 
any degree of certainty the precise period of each successful 
attempt, nor the precise condition of the atmosphere at the time. We 
read of special crosses having been effected under certain conditions 
of it, but I have never seen it specified what these conditions were 
My experience indicates that bright clear weather and the hours 
of sunshine are conducive to fecundation. 
I have alluded to the antipathies and affinities we find to exist, 
without any explicable cause ; for instance, I have found it impos- 
sible to fertilise three or four varieties of the scarlet Pelargonium 
(viz. , the Duke of Cornwall, Dr. Muret, Beaute de Suresnes, and 
all that section of the doubles which sprang from Beaute de 
Suresnes), which to all appearance are mere varieties of the zonal 
