58 



JOUENAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ANEMONE VARIATA [A. FULGENS x STELLATA]. 

 By Mr. A. Worsley, F.R.H.S. 



Many years ago many varieties of Anemone intermediate between 

 Anemone fulgens and A. stellata were noticed in the gardens of the 

 French Riviera. In this district A. fulgens was then only to be found in 

 gardens ; it is admittedly a good species and reproduces itself fairly true 

 from seed. On the other hand, A. stellata was to be found growing wild, 

 especially about Cap Martin ; yet this wild anemone is so inconstant 

 in its characters, and so variable in its seed-progeny, that we are compelled 

 to class it rather as a group of varietal forms than as a species in the 

 generally accepted meaning of this word. 



A few years ago Messrs. Vilmorin, Andrieux & Co., of Paris, put into 

 commerce an alleged hybrid between these species, which, as I understand, 

 they had themselves obtained from a private garden. This is the plant 

 of which I am now treating. Quite recently the same hybrid appears to 

 have arisen spontaneously in the garden of Messrs. van Tubergen, J un., of 

 Haarlem. In the latter instance the seed parent was a fine form of the 

 species known in gardens as A. fulgens annulata grandiflora, and grew in 

 a collection, amongst which were forms of A. stellata. As a result of 

 sowing the seed of the former there arose an intermediate race differing 

 in no other respect from the hybrid of Messrs. Vilmorin, excepting that it 

 possesses a wider range of colour. This is not at all to be wondered at 

 when we reflect that A. fulgens annulata is a bicolored form of A. fulgens. 



Now although there is no direct evidence that any particular persons 

 pollinated one species with the other, yet we have the evidence that an 

 intermediate race springs up between these species when they are grown 

 in juxtaposition, and that the origination of this intermediate race has 

 been observed on three different occasions by credible witnesses. I will 

 now show that the alleged hybrid hold a position equipoised between its 

 alleged parents ; beyond this no further evidence can be adduced until an 

 analysis can be made of the subsequent generations springing from the 

 self-fertilized hybrid plants — providing the same are not sterile. 



On comparing the alleged parents we note only three characters 

 in which they differ inter se, and in only one of these is this divergence 

 very wide. They are as follows : — 



A. Foliage in male slightly taller , takeg ^ ^ 

 a „ „ female, „ shorter J J 



B. Sepals „ male, number 10 to 12 ) female 



b. „ „ female, „ 12 or more f 



C. Colour in male, white to purple or rosy \ intermediate. 



c. „ „ female, intense scarlet ) 



