THE FLORAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES.] MARCH, 1881. 



HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITIONS. 



Notwithstanding that February was dull, cold and 

 occasionally inclement and unfavourable to the full 

 development of flowers even under glass, yet, at the 

 meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, on the 

 8th ult., some pretty subjects were forthcoming. 

 First-class Certificates of Merit were awarded to the 

 following novelties : viz., Lachenalia Nelsoni, a fine 

 bold-flowering hybrid, the result of crossing L. luteola 

 with L. aurea, the former being the seed-parent. The 

 progeny partakes of the character of the parents, 

 being intermediate as regards colour ; but the growth 

 is more robust and the raceme considerably larger than 

 in either parent. The colour is lemon-yellow, with the 

 tips of the petals faintly tinged with green, while the 

 upper part of the raceme is tinged with red. It was 

 raised by the Rev. J. Gr. Nelson, Aldborough Rectory, 

 Norwich. To Maranta Crocata, a small tufted species 

 from the United States of Colombia. The growth of 

 foliage is from six inches to nine inches in height ; the 

 rather broad obtuse leaves are of a deep velvety green 

 with a silvery lustre, and having a short spike bearing a 

 terminal head of densely packed orange bracts conceal- 

 ing the flowers ; it is a highly attractive plant. And 

 to Yriesia Falkenbergi, a native of the same locality as 

 the preceding, and described as a " tufted Bromeliad 

 with oblanceolate recurved leaves, and an erect two- 

 rayed flower-spike, with numerous crowded boat- 

 shaped bracts, crimson, with a broad green edge ;" at 

 the base of the flowers the colour is a deep blood-red, 

 extending the whole length of the spike, and at the 

 upper part, where it is dilated and flattened, the con- 

 cave bracts are tipped with white. We hope to figure 

 the foregoing novelties shortly. Both were exhibited 

 by Mr. William Bull, New Plant Establishment, King's 

 Road, Chelsea. 



The same award was made Hamamelis Virginica 

 arborea, a variety of the Virginian Witch-hazel, 

 introduced originally from Japan, and is a near ally of 

 H. Virginica, but has larger and more showy flowers. 

 The blooms, which are yellow with a purple eye, are 

 produced in winter while the tree is still leafless. The 

 Gardener's Chronicle states that it is a desirable hardy 

 shrub, not only of considerable beauty, but of much 

 structural interest ; and interesting, moreover, as 

 furnishing an additional link between the flora of the 



[No. 111. 



Eastern United States and that of Japan. This came 

 from Messrs. James Veitch and Sons, King's Road, 

 Chelsea, S.W. 



CHRYSANTHEMUM SPORTS. 

 In the world of vegetables and flowers mutability and 

 change has nowhere been more manifest than in the 

 Chrysanthemum family ; a state of things, properly 

 considered, which has turned out to the advantage of 

 the lover of flowers, rather than otherwise. 



The phenomenon of " floral sports " has puzzled and 

 perplexed those who have desired to find out the why 

 and wherefore of these changes ; but the severest 

 investigations into the causes have not as yet thrown 

 much light upon the subject — chemical agency, disease, 

 wet or dry seasons, have each and all been regarded as 

 the reasons, according to the several conditions in, and 

 under which, these changes have been developed. 



Sports, then, are accidental changes occurring in the 

 colour of leaves or flowers, appearing without any 

 apparent cause in an entire branch or stem, without 

 affecting the other parts of the plant. The phenomenon 

 has been going on many years, as, in the first importa- 

 tions from China, it was noticed that the buff, the rose, 

 and the sulphur-coloured varieties were more or less 

 subject to it ; but these sports differ widely from those 

 which have occurred since the period when the Chrys- 

 anthemum became an exhibition flower. 



Any one who has looked carefully into the subject 

 will have noticed in how many cases the sports, as they 

 are called, like seedlings, have inclined to the normal 

 type, yellow; but, happily, many of the choicest of our 

 exhibition vai'ieties, which have been produced as 

 sports, vary in this particular. 



So common have sports become, that no recent year 

 has passed without adding to the list of good things 

 by means of new forms and colours raised as sports. 

 A sport is of no value unless the colour be bright, and 

 distinct from any variety of the same description. 



As a rule, sports are much more likely to retain and 

 perpetuate their changes when propagated from the 

 branch which has undergone tho alteration, than when 

 propagation takes place from seed ; but as the saving 

 of seed, or rather the groiving of plants (Chrysanthemums) 

 from seed, is not pursued to any extent in this England 

 of ours, we purpose recording our experiences in con- 

 nexion with the raising of two varieties which are 



