204 Z3b<2 Slower (Brower 
Gladiolus Primulinus. 
BY JOSEPH JACOB in The Queen, (English. i 
F OUR PEOPLE OUT OF FIVE, if not a 
good deal larger percentage, when they 
think about or speak of the Gladiolus 
mean those groups and varieties which bloom 
in ordinary years in the months of August 
and September. There are, of course, all 
those more slender and delicate looking ones 
which bloom earlier in the year, of which 
The Bride, Peach Blossom and Blushing Bride 
are examples, but for the purposes of these 
notes the word is used in its more popular 
sensei, and the later-blooming varieties alone 
are included. 
What may be called the old and original 
Gladiolus formed a pretty well-defined group 
which was known as Gandavensis. This 
originated sometime in the forties of last 
century, and was obtained by crossing cer- 
tain species from South Africa. The strain 
passed into the possession of the great firm 
of Van Houtte, of Ghent, and a great step 
forwards was taken in its evolution when 
Souchet, the court gardener of Napoleon III, 
took a fancy to it, and by crossing Gandaven- 
sis with allied species produced many new 
varieties wherewith to embellish the imperial 
gardens. It is interesting to think that the 
old Empress who died quite recently in Spain 
was doubtless in at the start of our modern 
Gladioli, and if she’ever saw the new primu- 
sweet-pea man a flower with cowslip-col- 
ored standard, wings and keel. It was a bit 
of rare good luck to meet Sir Francis him- 
self at Vincent-square on July 27. Unde- 
signedly, I believe, it happened to be the 
Gladiolus day of the year. No less than six 
groups were staged, including two from Hol- 
land— which, by the way, like the straightly 
ascending smoke from a house chimney, is a 
sign of fairer times. As I was looking at the 
one which I thought the most beautiful 
of them all, alongside of my friend, Mr. 
Arthur Bulley, who, I may say, was roused to 
a great pitch of enthusiasm by the sight, and 
was telling me he would like to buy the lot, 
a small, thin, ascetic-faced man who was also 
standing admiring, said in a quiet voice, as if 
half speaking to himself, something to this 
effect : “Neither Mr. Churcher nor anyone 
else would have been able to produce all of 
these hybrids without my introduction of 
primulinus.” We soon thawed, and in the 
conversation that followed Sir Francis dis- 
closed his identity, and told us how, when 
he was building the bridge over the Victoria 
Falls on the Zambesi River, one of the engi- 
neers on the spot— Mr. Townshend— found a 
yellow-flowered plant which struck him as 
something out of the common ; how, know- 
ing his fondness for his garden, hejsent him 
Cicely Mother of Pearl Otranto 
linus hybrids, was also in at its latest devel- 
opment. Four score years and ten more than 
cover its evolution. During this period dif- 
ferent workers have originated new groups. 
Thus, in France, Lemoine, of Nancy, has pro- 
duced the Lemoinei and the Nanceianus ; in 
America Childs, although he did not originate 
them, has given us the Childsii and Groff’s 
hybrids ; while in England Kelway has given 
us the Kelwayi. In Holland, too, breeders 
have been busy, and many good varieties 
have had their origin there. Up to 1906 or 
1907, the above constituted the modern 
garden Gladioli. 
A Newcomer and its Influence. 
In 1904 an event of supreme importance 
happened in the Gladiolus world. From fic- 
tion and in real life one is familiar with the 
change that the advent of a new personality 
is capable of bringing about in the life of a 
human being. In the August of that year Sir 
Francis Fox, a member of the celebrated firm 
of engineers whose activities under the earth 
and on the earth are so well known that a 
catalogue is unnecessary, exhibited at one of 
the Royal Horticultural Shows a beautiful 
butter-yellow Gladiolus. It was a “self” of 
the very color that had hitherto existed only 
in the imagination of the enthusiast, in the 
same way that the Daffodil farmer pictures 
an Emperor with a red trumpet, or the 
home four bulbs; how he grew these then 
unknown bulbs in a damp, warm atmosphere 
in order to imitate as far as possible the 
climate and conditions of their native home ; 
how at length the precious plants flowered, 
and how the first was promptly dispatched 
to Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer at Kew for a name ; 
how, recognizing its value and potentialities, 
a letter was sent to Mr. Townshend for 
more ; how the “more” at length arrived, 
and how some of the newcomers were then 
sent to Kew, Glasnevin, Edinburgh, America, 
and Holland. 
Gladiolus primulinus thus became a world 
plant, and the immense influence that it has 
already exercised was clearly demonstrated 
by comparing the groups of Messrs. Kelway 
& Son, of Langport, and Messrs. K. Velthuys, 
Ltd., of Hillegom, Holland, who for the most 
part staged the older types, with those of 
Mr. George Churcher, Messrs. E. H. Krelage 
& Sons, of Haarlem, Mr. G. Cave and Messrs. 
Barr & Sons, whose collections were either 
wholly, or almost wholly, composed of the 
new Primulinus Hybrids, or, as they are al- 
ready beginning to be called, “prims.” 
Characteristics of the "Prims.” 
I have already incidentally referred to 
some of them, but the type is so lovely that 
it is worth while gathering up the fragments 
so that none of the points which, in my opin- 
December. 1920 
ion, constitute their beauty, be lost. The 
best description that I have ever heard of 
the large-flowered and crowded spikes of the 
older garden forms which, once upon a time, 
collectively composed “the Gladiolus” is the 
word “clumsy,” used by Sir Francis in our 
little talkee-talkee in the hall. They look 
clumsy compared with the lighter, more wiry 
“prims.” For these we have been to some 
extent prepared when Lemoine introduced 
his Lemoinei strain, but eventually by the 
introduction of new blood (Gladiolus Saun- 
dersii), it was changed out of all recognition. 
History repeats itself in no sphere so often 
and so consistently as in the evolution of 
garden flowers from small to larger and still 
larger, and from narrow petals to wider and 
still wider. I already see the writing on the 
wall with regard to the newcomers, “Mene, 
mene, Tekel, Upharsin”; and I very much 
fear that the days of the delightful, delicate 
and dainty Primulinus Hybrids are numbered 
because they have been weighed in the bal- 
ance and found wanting by an unhappy taste 
for size and fatness of bloom, as if garden 
lovers were the eligibles and they the young 
Jewesses of the fair town of Mogador. Their 
grace and charm is slowly being absorbed by 
all-powerful Medes and Persians, or, in plain 
language by the Gandavensis, Nanceianus, or 
Childsii types. These, then, are the early, 
and I believe the most essential character- 
istics which we should strive to retain. First, 
the protective craning forward top petal to 
whose peculiar arrangement their ancestor 
owes its existence amid the spray and damp 
of its African home. Secondly, the small, 
smart, alert-looking flowerswhich the founder 
of the race undoubtedly had. Thirdly, the 
loose setting of the individual blooms on the 
spike— again a carrying out of the original 
type. Fourthly, the special color tone which 
runs through all the earlier hybrids which it 
is impossible to describe satisfactorily, for it 
must be seen to be recognized. The limit in 
all these respects has been reached by Mr. 
George Churcher’s Woodcote. Its flowers are 
as large as I would countenance, and their 
spacing on the stems just about right. They 
are a soft scarlet in color, relieved by a con- 
siderable, almost white blotch on the lower 
petals, and as the vase was on the topmost 
platform of the exhibits its virtues are easily 
discernible. More than one visitor pointed 
it out to me as a great beauty. 
Among the others which deserve honora- 
ble mention there were ; Golden Drop, shown 
by Barr & Sons, a fine yellow self, almost as 
deep a shade as the true primulinus ; Queen 
Victoria, shown by Barr & Sons and Mr. 
Cave, one of those delightful, pale rosy pinks 
to which I have already alluded ; Cicely 
(Churcher), another pretty pink with faint 
scarlet veinings and stripes, and with warm 
carmine on the lower petals; Eurydice (Kre- 
lage), a pleasing rosy pink ; Mother-o’-Pearl 
(Churcher), a delicate warm flesh; Yellow 
Queen (Churcher), a good canary yellow 
with small scarlet markings on its lower 
petals ; Orange Brilliant (Cave), a particularly 
effective variety, deep maize with the upper 
petals flushed red and a conspicuous mid rib 
on the others of a similar shade; Atalanta, 
(Krelage), primrose flushed salmon ; Hermi- 
one ( Krelage), a flower with a splendid ruddy 
glow; Golden Girl (Kelway & Son), good 
canary yellow flowers loosely arranged on the 
spike; and Otranto (Churcher), a pretty shade 
of maize with conspicuous scarlet markings 
on the throat of the flower, which becomes 
more pink with age. 
Gladiolus growers are all interested 
in Primulinus Hybrids, a little history 
of which is given above, and those 
who have not Primulinus species in 
their collection, should add it at once. 
The Gladiolus species are interesting 
as novelties as well as useful for hy- 
bridizing purposes. 
