FLORAL DEMONSTRATION. 



295 



stem soon acquires sufficient strength to support a very much 

 greater weight than it could have borne if it had been left to 

 grow naturally. When irregular flowers become regular under 

 cultivation, it is therefore apparently due to the continual ab- 

 sence of irritation set up by the insects of the country of which 

 the flower in question is a native. It then reverts to the ances- 

 tral regular form. Such reversions may also be seen in terminal 

 flowers, as of the spikes of larkspurs, foxgloves, horse chestnuts, 

 &c, as irregular flowers are always more or less vertical, and 

 mostly closely applied to a stem, so that insects are compelled to 

 visit them from the front, and to rest on the lower petal, or else 

 on the stamens. 



Mr. Veitch's display of rhododendrons afforded a subject for 

 remarks on crossing and doubling. His well-known and beautiful 

 " greenhouse " forms were raised by hybridising about half a dozen 

 species from the East Indies. The double or " Balsamas-flora " 

 section is especially interesting, as having been derived by his 

 pollinating one particular flower, which had a single subpeta- 

 loid anther, with the pollen of the stamens in the same flower. 

 This illustrates the fact that it is impossible to make a double 

 flower unless nature first puts in an appearance, so to say, upon 

 which the florist can then work. The exact external conditions 

 under which " doubling " arises are not known. 



Chrysanthemums afforded an opportunity of remarking upon 

 the immense changes which the florists have been enabled to effect 

 since the earliest examples reached England from Japan, in the first 

 three decades of this century. The "actiniform" and "dragon's- 

 mouthed " forms were introduced by Mr. Fortune in 1840. Mr. 

 Henslow explained how the modifications in the structure of the 

 corollas are produced, giving rise to the astonishing variety now 

 existing among the flowers of this plant. 



Cyclamen illustrated the peculiarity of certain plants in 

 burying their pods. In the case of Trifolium subterraneum Mr. 

 Darwin showed that the fruit was capable of absorbing nitro- 

 genous matters from the soil by means of hairs. It is inferred, 

 therefore, that cyclamen may do the same. This suggested that 

 experiments should be made to see if the seeds of the cyclamen 

 proved to be of a better quality if the pods were artificially covered 

 and nourished by means of salts, &c, in the soil. 



Cephalotus compared with nepenthes illustrated the wonder- 



