GLADIOLI. 



265 



with their flowers placed in opposite directions to each other, 

 and all opening nearly at the same time, just like oppositiflorus, 

 as some few others almost reproduce the typical gandavensis, 

 although a great many generations removed from it. A gladiolus 

 with its flowers placed in opposite directions on the spike is a 

 poor garden plant, compared to one with its flowers all facing in 

 one direction, and I have no faith in going back to the species as 

 a remedy for improving their constitution. As an instance of 

 this I may mention that a hybrid was given to us for trial, a 

 cross between a very vigorous variety and Saundersi, and this 

 became so badly diseased the first season we grew it that it died 

 outright soon after blooming, whilst many of the old hybrids 

 raised more than twenty years ago, growing in the same bed and 

 under exactly the same conditions, remained in vigorous health. 



There may not be much natural affinity between gladiolus 

 and potatos, but both are plants more or less affected with 

 fungoid diseases difficult to combat, and the latter serves the 

 purpose of a good illustration on this point. Mr. Sutton, in his 

 interesting lecture on the potato delivered in this hall last year,* 

 related his experience of crossing varieties of potatos with some 

 of the species of Solanum, without obtaining any good results 

 in securing varieties proof against disease. Such, I think, would 

 be the case with gladioli, if we recommenced afresh from the 

 species. As in the case of potatos, I would rather look to clean 

 cultivation, and the selection of vigorous hybrids as parents, and 

 the raising of young stock to replace worn-out conns, as is 

 done in the case of most garden plants. My own annual 

 loss from disease barely reaches 10 per cent. Many people 

 appear to have an idea that a gladiolus should increase stock in 

 the same way as a narcissus, by the old bulbs increasing by 

 natural division ; and no doubt to a certain extent this is so ; 

 but this mode of increase eventually wears out, and it is to the 

 young bulblets which cluster at the base that we must look for 

 perpetuating varieties for an indefinite period. Otherwise named 

 collections of gladioli would not exist, where the stock of any 

 given variety could be obtained by the hundred or thousand, as 

 is the case with many varieties at the present time. 



A paper on gladiolus would hardly be complete without some 

 reference to the various sections of the flower. Many of the 

 * See R.H.S. Journal, Vol. XIX., Part ?, p. 387. 



