CHRYSANTHEMUM SPORTS. 



558 



a study of sports that the Chrysanthemum contains two means 

 at its disposal. One is a force which causes the sport to repro- 

 duce an ancestral form which had existed before ; a second 

 when, by a new combination of its internal forces, it produces 

 an entirely new and original colour or form altogether. We 

 cannot tell to which class a sport may be referred unless we 

 possessed every sport that ever existed for comparison. But 

 that no new sport can arise without some alteration in the 

 surroundings, as ingredients in the soil or climate, I think all 

 evidence concerning plant life tends to show. I do not mean to 

 imply that the sport need immediately follow some alteration ; 

 for if we regard the formation of flowers as the result of forces, 

 we know that forces may accumulate, lie dormant, or remain 

 potential till circumstances occur which, so to say, liberate 

 them. So that a new feature may take generations, for all we 

 know, before it can make itself apparent ; or an old character 

 may lie dormant for ages. Hence, to produce sports, the more 

 varied the surroundings can be made, so, I believe, is the 

 greater chance of sporting to be induced. 



As a good illustration of " dissociation," the accompanying 

 figure (117) represents this phenomenon in a hybrid Cypripedium. 

 " The flower came from the collection of Sir F. Wigan at 

 Sheen.* It is a form of C. Dauthieri x , which is the result of 

 a cross directly or indirectly of C. barbatum and C. villosum. 

 The figure shows that one-half of the scape, bract, flower- 

 segments, lip, and even the staminode partakes of the characters 

 of 0. villosum, whilst the other half shows the form and 

 colouration of C. barbatum. Similar variations in Calanthes, 

 Chrysanthemums,t Koses, and other plants have been figured." 



I have said nothing about intercrossing — this is too obvious a 

 means of introducing changes in the offspring — but it stands 

 altogether outside the limits of our subject, for sports are, strictly 

 speaking, limited to " bud variations," which appear on an 

 individual during the course of its growth, and not in the seed- 

 ling. Consequently I need only remind the reader of the two 

 well-known laws of such propagation, viz. cross, for variation, 

 and self-fertilise, for fixation. 



Now let us examine the structure of the flower of the Chrys- 



* Gard. Chron. Nov. 30, 1889, p. 632. 

 f Ibid. March 10, 1895, p. 335. 



