224 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



which I believe belongs to D. plumarius, with a long fringed 

 margin and generally with a dark eye. In others the inclination 

 in successive generations seems to be towards D. barbatus, which 

 I take to have very powerful pollen. The species which seems 

 most susceptible of foreign pollen is D. superbus, which rarely 

 comes true from seed collected in Edge garden, the seedlings 

 often approaching D. barbatus. There is one very dwarf and 

 very early kind, excellent for rockeries, and sold in many nur- 

 series as D. glacialis, but being, I believe, a hybrid of D.alpinus. 

 This is the only single Dianthus which I have grown for many 

 years (except the well-known D. Atkinsoni) without ever being 

 able to obtain a seed from it. 



I have already mentioned the variability in colour of Veronica 

 spicata in a wild state ; and botanists know that other Veronicas, 

 such as V. Teucrium, are by nature very variable in form. 

 Hence we should expect them to be puzzling plants when 

 allowed to grow from seed in gardens, and I have found them to 

 be so. The dwarfest form of Veronica spicata, found in the 

 eastern counties, where I believe it is constant in colour, re- 

 tains its dwarf form when transferred to my rockery ; but in the 

 first generation from seed the seedlings range from one foot to 

 three feet high, though showing no sign of hybridisation. I 

 have, however, many nondescript Veronicas which have seemed 

 to come of themselves, and are probably hybrids, though I have 

 looked in vain for evidence of a hybrid between those which pro- 

 duce a terminal spike and those which have axillary corymbs of 

 flower. A common abnormal form in the spiked Veronicas, 

 perhaps due to luxuriance in cultivation, is that called " corym- 

 bose." The individual flowers of the spike are transformed into 

 secondary spikes, collecting into the form of a corymb. I have 

 seen it in several species. 



Another genus, Verbascum (the Mullein), hybridises freely in 

 my garden ; but its hybrids, as far as I have examined them, 

 have seemed barren, and difficult to perpetuate. They follow, 

 in duration, the habit of the shorter-lived parent, a biennial 

 crossed with a perennial being biennial. The most interesting 

 and frequent hybrids are made by V. phoeniceum. This peren- 

 nial, of which the type is dark purple, with an occasional 

 individual pure white, follows the habit which nearly all such 

 flowers have, of varying through every intermediate shade. 



