THE GLADIOLUS AS IT IS. 



269 



but in Plainville, Conn., many of the plants have beauti- 

 ful double flowers, and there is no other known native 

 locality in the world for the double-flowering variety. 



A large floating plant [Pisti'a spathiilata), called 

 water-lettuce, grows abundantly in the south, and so does 

 the smaller and more beautiful floating fern {AzoUa 

 Caroliniana). The text-books erroneously describe 

 the latter as floating loosely upon the water as if this were 

 its only home. However much it may travel, its original 

 home is in springy places on the shore, or in the fields 



where it forms the most delicate plush carpet of green 

 and reddish bronze that ever grew. The fine roots be- 

 come tender as the plant matures, are broken off, and 

 the rains carry them to the river where they are found 

 and written up as floating plants by those who never have 

 seen them in their original home. Perhaps the writers are 

 not to blame, for the whole secret of nature cannot be 

 learned at once, any more than one can exhaust the subject 

 of aquatic plants within an hour. — Janu s SJicpai-d, be- 

 fore the iVczu Britain {Co?in.) Horticultural Society. 



THE GLADIOLUS AS IT IS. 



UST a half century ago next 

 year, in 1843, L. Van Houtte 

 produced in Ghent the hybrid 

 gladiolus gandavensis, which 

 was the starting-point of our 

 best garden varieties. It was 

 the result of a cross between 

 G. psittacinus and G. op- 

 positifloru.^ (sold now under 

 the erroneous name of Jlori- 

 buudus). It is true that its 

 originator gave psittacinus and 

 cardinalis as its parents, but 

 Dean Herbert, who examined 

 it closely, decided from bo- 

 tanical evidence that there must have been a mistake on 

 Van Houtte's part, and the matter is now considered 

 settled as above stated. Whoever has cultivated cardin- 

 alis will agree that our gandavensis hybrids show noth- 

 ing of the cardinalis blood ; differing, especially, in the 

 ease and certainty with which they can be carried through 

 the winter in a dry state — a very difficult thing to do 

 with that species. From the first the brightness and 

 stateliness of this plant have made it a favorite, and the 

 raising of seedlings from it has been the amusement as 

 well as the business of many ; hence a host of varieties 

 have been brought into existence, hundreds of which 

 have been forgotten, and hundreds more ought to be, 



either because they are poor or because they are not 

 distinct from other kinds. The naming of inferior or 

 indistinct varieties of any plant acts as a check upon im- 

 provement. There are no doubt 200 varieties now in ex- 

 istence worth keeping under names ; I do not believe 

 there are more, though it is probable that every one who 

 raises seedlings names a great many. It does not follow 

 that no other than named sorts are worthy of cultivation ; 

 for supplying cut-flowers, mixed bulbs are worth, to 

 the uncritical, as much as the best named varieties. 



For many years the French and Belgian growers had 

 the field to themselves, and so far as I can learn con- 

 fined themselves to improving Van Houtte's gandavensis, 

 in which they were remarkably successful, inasmuch as 

 many of these old varieties still hold their place in com- 

 merce and in estimation. Some years ago a gentleman 

 was looking at my gladioluses, and was much pleased 

 with a bed of brilliant scarlet ones which not only had 

 attracted his notice at a distance, but compelled his ad- 

 miration when standing among them. The variety was the 

 ancient Brenchleyensis, which can be bought at a cent 

 apiece, yet no later kind excels it for brilliancy, though 

 in other particulars it does not hold a high position. 

 Two other old kinds, Shakespeare with a white ground 

 and Meyerbeer with an orange-red, both produced by M. 

 Souchet from the same seed-pod, are equal to any 

 modern kinds in every respect but length of spike. Am- 

 broise Verschaffelt, a variety which may be had for ten 



