THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 
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thin paper or gauze, which will not interfere with the 
ripening of the seed. 
The seeds, when ripe, must be planted off by them- 
selves, and care taken for several generations that the 
hybrids be kept separate from insect interference or self- 
fertilization from the pollen of the seed-bearing flower. 
When the parent flowers of the potential hybrid are very 
small, if they be closely akin, they may be planted so near 
together, and yet so far apart from other similar plants, 
that there is a strong probability that the bees and insects 
v ill bring about the desired cross-fertilization. But of 
course one is taking chances. This method 1 once tried 
with success. 
By planting two varieties of the viola family close 
together in a flower-bed apart, and allowing the insects 
to cross-fertilize for me, because the flowers were so tiny 
that I thought that hand-pollination would not be so sure 
of success, I got about forty-five variations in the mark- 
ings and color of the Alpine violet. The Alpine violet 
is yellow in the lower and white in the upper petals. The 
other parent selected was purple and yellow. The hy- 
brids were, in the main, yellow and white, yellow and 
white with purple or sky-blue veinings. blotches, and 
stripes, or with the added color only on the back of the 
upper petals. Each plant would bear many flowers, 
showing many variations, except those which came true 
to the parent types, which were pure throughout. Grad- 
ually I selected the one that I thought the best, a flower 
with the lower petals yellow and the upper sky-blue. 
But, even after several generations, this selected variety 
would almost invariably alternate on the stem with the 
Alpine violet. Now I am trying the effects of slipping, 
in order to get this type pure throughout. But even the 
oddly marked hybrids, with their differently colored flow- 
ers on the same plant, have piquancy and charm enough 
to lie saved, too. 
Flowers that lend themselves to experiments of this 
kind are, among others, the wild white eupatorium of 
the northern woods. Color might well be introduced by 
crossing with the dwarf, less hardy variety. Eupatorium 
ccelestinum, with its flowers ^i amethystine blue. 
As plants for rock-gardens are now in great demand 
in this country, the wild white saxifrage offers opportu- 
nitv fur developing and change in color other than pink, 
which has already been produced. 
Color might be given to the wild white clematis. 
Man)' of the mints might he turned into garden plants 
after improvement in size. 
The Labrador tea, too. lends itself to experiment ; also 
the wild cucumber vine, and innumerable other plants. 
If opportunities do not seem to offer for the develop- 
ment of new varieties in these two ways, one can always 
collect abroad seeds of some wild flower not grown in 
gardens at home. While wandering in the vineyard of a 
friend above the Porta Romana, in Florence, I was 
much attracted to the wild dwarf larkspur that I found 
growing there in profusion. I brought some of the seed 
back with me and, after trying it out in different soils 
and location for a number of years, have naturalized it 
so that it has developed interesting qualities, and is now 
so much at home that it comes up by itself each year. It 
responds readily to enrichment of the soil, and makes 
either a delightful border edging, with its pert little 
spurred buds and flowers of the blue of Parma violets 
and its lacy, cut foliage, or a mid-garden plant, where 
in heavier soil it will grow to a height of two or three 
feet, and spread out into a mist of blue and green. 
Such haphazard experiments as these may well become 
a hobby with any lover of flowers, and a hobby which 
will give great joy to anyone who may have the interest 
and a little summer leisure to pursue it. — Elma Loines, 
in Landscape Architecture. 
Courtesy of Rlt. Desert Nurseries. 
Spiraea Kamtsckatica Naturalized in Woodland. 
