554 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



examine the new class of purpureo-auratus hybrids which have 

 been termed Hardy Spotted Gladioli. 



Gladiolus inLrpureo-auratus (J. D. Hooker) was introduced 

 from Natal into England by Mr. William Bull about 1870, and 

 was described for the first time in the Botanical Magazine, 

 January 1872, No. 5,944, and afterwards in Van Houtte's 

 " Flore " of February 15, 1874. This well-known nurseryman, 

 in whose grounds the new species was already grown, speaks 

 thus : "Let this native of Natal be welcome, for its shape and 

 especially its colour are unusual, and will allow us to obtain 

 from it some interesting hybrids." 



As this plant, though very easy to grow, is somewhat rare in 

 gardens, and seldom met with at horticultural exhibitions, it 

 will be as well to describe it shortly. Its rather broad and firm 

 leaves, of a glaucous green, are not often more than 18 inches high. 

 The flower-stalk, about 3 feet, is first upright, and then arched 

 on a level with the lower flowers ; the latter (there are never 

 more than three open together) are small, funnel-shaped, and 

 kneed at their base, so that normally, and without a stake, they 

 are quite bent towards the ground. The colour is a pale sulphur 

 yellow, more apparent on the lower segments, which are marked 

 with a long, purplish spot. There are about fifteen blooms, 

 opening successively on the principal stem, which are followed by 

 one or two secondary spikes laterally inserted on the first. The 

 conn is very small, about one inch across, and puts forth, after 

 the plant has done flowering, some bulblets, frequently as big as 

 itself and borne on long peduncles, which are horizontally 

 developed, and extend two or three inches from the bulb. G. 

 jpurpureo-auratus is perfectly hardy, and if one of its bulbs is 

 left in the ground, the second or third year there will be a large 

 clump of leaves and flowers — thanks to its peculiar power of 

 emitting bulblets to a distance. 



Such is the species which was destined to become the mother 

 of a new race of hardy Gladioli. 



Having noticed the perfect hardiness of this plant, the bulbs 

 and bulblets of which, when left in open ground, would invariably 

 spring up every year, M. Victor Lemoine, of Nancy, determined 

 to try if a hybridisation between it and the Gandavensis varieties 

 would not give greater vigour to the latter. Having purchased 

 some of the best varieties of Gandavensis in the course of the 



