CHRYSANTHEMUM SPORTS. 



551 



Dissociation of Parental Characters. — This peculiarity 

 is not uncommon in plants, whether they be true hybrids, i.e. 

 the offspring of distinct species, or the progeny of crossing 

 varieties. The characters of the two parents become separated 

 and borne by two distinct branches of the plant. The well- 

 known Cytisus Adami appears to be a case in point. A hybrid 

 Hellebore has been known to bear white flowers on one sport, 

 and purple flowers on another, kc. Similarly, in Chrys- 

 anthemums, If. Carriere mentions how a variety called Sophie 

 bore flowers which were flat, having the petals narrow 

 and imbricated, as well as flowers which were rounded, the 

 petals being large and but little compact. As another instance, 

 that author remarks that the variety Argentine, which is a 

 Pompon, gave rise to a more vigorous branch, which bore large 

 flowers, like the ordinary large-flowered Chrysanthemums. 

 This may therefore have been a case of dissociation, the form 

 Argentine having probably been a descendant from a cross 

 between some form of C. indicum and C. sinense. Again, the 

 green Viviand Morel bore two flowers, one of which was pink 

 in the lower half and pure green in the upper. The other flower was 

 pure white with a green patch on one side of the flower. Many 

 other instances are known, and are familiar objects to 

 Chrysanthemum growers. This property, which might be 

 described as the result from a storage of forms and colours, 

 strikes one as not only very remarkable, but practically sugges- 

 tive. It seems as if a plant, having been subjected to some new 

 conditions, sports. The sport is propagated, and retains the 

 character peculiar to the parent "in the blood," which enables 

 it to revert. The sport itself sports again, and the latter now 

 contains two forms in its constitution. It may sport again, and 

 so on, perhaps any number of times, and yet probably retain all 

 the preceding sports latent in its constitution. Now, as 

 Chrysanthemums imported into this country have been grown 

 from time immemorial in China and Japan, every variety may 

 now be, for all we know, a sort of multum in parvo, and the 

 oftener one alters the conditions of the environment of those 

 which have proved themselves to be most sportive, such as the 

 so-called "families" of Queen Victoria, Princess of Wales, 

 Duchess of Teck, &c, so much the more likely, as it seems to 

 me, will fresh sports be produced. Hence it would seem from 



