256 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The Balsam^eflorum Section of Rhododendron 

 Crosses. 



The group of semi-double and double forms of Rhododendrons 

 called Balsamceflorum (figs. 39 and 40), from their resemblance, 

 to the double flowers of some Balsams, is a curious result of self- 

 fertilisation. Mr. Heal, Mr. Veitch's assistant, who has raised 

 all these hybrids and crosses, observed a single flower in a certain 

 truss on a plant of the second generation to have one anther only, 

 slightly petaloid. He impregnated the pistil of the flower with 



Fig. 39.— Rhododendron Balsajleflorum carxeuit. 



pollen from the other anthers of the same flower ; this process 

 being thus strict self-fertilisation. About twenty seedlings were 

 raised, which now constitute the Balsamceflorum section. 



It would, I think, be incorrect to say that self-fertilisation in 

 this case was a cause of doubling, but that it enabled and en- 

 couraged the tendency to petalody to be intensified. For, on the 

 contrary, whenever a member of this group has been crossed 

 with a true species, or one of the crosses raised from the seven 

 species, the results were always normal {e.g. Nos. 207 and 423), 



