HARDY GLADIOLUS. 



557 



with some unnamed ones, which were to be offered in the follow- 

 ing autumn, were staged before the National Horticultural 

 Society of France, and were awarded a first-class premium. 

 From that date a large number of seedlings have been raised and 

 preserved, and though a large proportion of them after being 

 grown for one or two seasons have been cast away without being 

 sent out, the remainder, considered as good varieties, have 

 been successively offered to the trade at the rate of about ten 

 novelties every autumn. To enumerate them would be super- 

 fluous. 



Amateurs in every country soon recognised what an acquisi- 

 tion they had gained in these Hybrid Gladioli, and many spoke 

 most favourably of them, and I seize this opportunity to return 

 publicly my thanks to Mr. W. E. Gumbleton, of Queenstown, 

 who made it his business to try, and to study accurately, each 

 of our novelties as soon as sent out, and to publish every year 

 an impartial and sincere account, with the descriptions of the 

 varieties, accompanied now and again with severe remarks on 

 some, and many a lover of plants thus received very valuable 

 information, and was able to benefit by Mr. Gumbleton's well- 

 known experience. 



There are now actually in cultivation about sixty varieties of 

 Lenioine's Gladioli, among which I only think it necessary to 

 mention the most distinct and striking ones, those which ought 

 to find a place in every collection : — 



White.— Mme. Lemoinier (1886), cream, with a long plum- 

 coloured blotch ; Venus de Milo (1888), white, with a blush shade 

 and a feathered spot on the lower segments, large flowers. 



Salmon and Bose. — Andre Chenier (1884), pink, with a large 

 brown spot and yellow tips ; La France (1881), salmon rose, 

 with long violet blotches ; Boussingault (1887), an improvement 

 on Andre Chenier. 



Cream and Straw ■ coloured. — Lafayette (1882), cream, 

 spotted with maroon ; Etoile (1885), salmon yellow, with blood- 

 red markings; E. V. Hallock (1887), large straw-coloured blooms, 

 with brown spots; Amiral Krantz (1887), a beautiful improve- 

 ment on Lafayette. 



Yellow. — Alsace (1884), pale sulphur yellow, a little spotted ; 

 Sceptre d'Or (1885), bright yellow, heavily blotched with brown ; 

 Louis van Houtte (1887), pale yellow, long dark blotches; 



