554 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



anthemum itself, and see how variations arise from it. Florists 

 recognise several distinct forms. Starting from the original 

 " single " or wild form we have the ray and the disk florets, like 

 a Daisy. The first change is the so-called " doubling." In this 

 the disk florets become very similar to the ray. Now follow the 

 various details. If we examine a ray floret, we find it has a 

 short tube, with a flattened limb of three petals only. If the 

 tube is elongated, with little or no limb, the quilled form results. 

 If the limb is enlarged, widened, and the tube is short, we get 

 the recurved and the incurved forms, according as the flat piece 

 bends outwards or inwards. If the limb is very narrow and 

 long, the Japanese actiniform varieties result. Returning to the 

 wild type we start afresh, and simply enlarge the disk florets. 

 We thus get the Anemone form. If the ray becomes tubular 

 like the disk, but enlarged, the number of the lobes to the corolla 

 increasing, as in the Cornflower, the Dragon's-mouth variety is 

 secured. If, however, we ask what causes all these differences 

 to arise respectively, at present there is no reply, and therefore 

 we do not know what steps to take to induce them to form 

 respectively, until Nature herself has supplied the first indication 

 of a change. The first thing to do, if we want to discover a 

 cause, is to look out for coincidences. If a sport appear, I 

 would ask the florist to note anything and everything he can 

 observe as to the conditions surrounding that plant, and to find out 

 its ancestry. It would seem desirable to note also the climatic 

 conditions at the time, as sports of a like kind in plants, as we 

 have seen, often appear simultaneously both in different places 

 of the same county or counties, and also in different seasons. 



It is only by accumulating coincidences that we can arrive at 

 the first suspicion of a cause. When we think we may have 

 discovered that a certain result seems to occur often or generally 

 under certain particular circumstances, then is the time for 

 experiments, to try and induce the same result to occur by 

 artificially supplying those circumstances. Practical men are 

 often inclined to look suspiciously on scientific men as being too 

 theoretical ; but the reply is, that if only practical men would 

 observe more, and record their observations, and then hand them 

 over to the scientist, each party would, without doubt, benefit 

 very largely by the other. The scientist has no such grand 

 opportunities as the practical mam Thousands of facts familiar 



