April, 1918 
41 
Slower (Brower 
“ Gladiolus Studies I. 
Botany, History and Evolution of the Gladiolus.” 
By Alvin C. Beal. 
i [U'rUen txprtirii hr The F/ewer Grower.] A Review by S. E. SPENCER. 
I N ADDITION to the valuable pam- 
phlet on " The Hard Rot Disease of 
the Gladiolus,” reviewed in the 
February number, the New York State 
College of Agriculture has issued three 
Extension Bulletins, numbered 9, 10 
and 11, which will be a welcome ad- 
dition to the literature of floriculture 
and of great value to all who grow 
Gladioli. As these pamphlets are for 
free distribution only in New York 
State the editor of The Flower 
Grower has asked me to give -our 
readers a general idea of their contents. 
There is an element in human nature 
which causes us to search for the be- 
ginnings of things, and this fancy is 
fully satisfied in Bulletin No. 9, which 
gives us a very complete and interest- 
ing history of the beginnings of Gladi- 
olus culture. 
Those who imagine the Gladiolus is 
a product of the modern flower garden 
will be surprised to learn that " There 
is no definite record of the time when 
the plant came into cultivation. It is 
not improbable that the Greeks and 
Romans used the flowers of native spe- 
cies gathered from their grain fields 
in their floral decorations.” Dioscorides 
writes of a purple flowered Gladiolus 
(probably G. Communis ) and Atheneus 
says Gladioli were planted on the 
graves of virgins. 
On pages 122 and 123 are six illus- 
trations of " Garden Gladioli of Three 
Centuries Ago,” as illustrated in colors 
by Besler in 1613. Two of these show 
wide open blossoms and three have 
lily shaped drooping flowers with very 
little resemblance to modern Gladioli. 
The botanical history of the Gladi- 
olus begins with the mention of two 
species by John Gerarde, 1597, in " The 
herball or generall historie of plants.” 
These were Gladiolus Narbonensis, 
French corn flag, flowers purple and 
arranged on both sides of the stalk, 
and Gladiolus Italicus, Italian corn flag, 
flowers purple, similar in form to the 
preceding but arranged on one side of 
the stalk. 
And in describing these species Ger- 
arde writes : " These kinds of corne 
flags growe in meadowes and earable 
grounds among corne in many places 
in Italy as also in the parts of France 
bordering thereunto. Neither are the 
fields of Austria and Moravia without 
them as Cordus writeth. We have 
great plentie of them in our London 
gardens, especially for the garnishing 
and decking them up with their seemely 
flowers.” 
Bradley (1728) mentions six species, 
Linnaeus in 1737, describes sixteen, and 
John Bellenden Gawler in 1805 listed 
twenty-eight. 
John Gilbert Barker in 1878 published 
Systema Iridacearum. In 1892 his 
" Handbook of the Iridae,” describes 
132 species. And so the list has grown 
until we have the one compiled by the 
author, covering seven pages, giving 
habitat, date of introduction, height in 
inches, number of flowers and coloring 
of 183 species. A detailed description 
is given of twenty-two of these which 
were used in the development of the 
modern Gladiolus. Many of them are 
still listed in the catalogs of European 
dealers. 
Fifteen species are found in Europe, 
Asia and Persia, practically all the 
others in Africa, and it is interesting 
to note that almost one hundred years 
ago Hon. William Herbert, Dean of 
Manchester, wrote a prophesy which 
has been amply fulfilled in our time: 
" I am pursuaded that the African 
Gladioli will become great favorites 
with florists when their beauty in the 
open border, the facility of their culture 
and the endless variety which may be 
produced from seed by blending the 
several species are fully known.” 
In the Journal of the Horticultural 
Society of London (1847) he records 
what was probably the first attempt to 
hybridize Gladioli : 
" Forty years ago I first crossed the 
large and brilliant scarlet and white 
Gladiolus Cardinalis with the smaller 
but more freely flowering G. Blandus 
which sports with white purple and 
rose coloured flowers. The result was 
a fertile breed of great beauty of which 
the prevailing colour was purplish 
roseate.” 
Just one hundred years ago he re- 
ported to the same society : 
" Having raised two beautiful and 
hardy species (?) of Gladioli by impreg- 
nating Cardinalis with Blandus and 
Blandus with Cardinalis * * * These 
two new species of Gladiolus which 
have flowered make seed freely. I 
have also mules from Gladiolus Tristis 
impregnated from the large flowered 
blue Gladiolus Recurvus." 
But none of these "mules” were of 
any commercial value. It was Col- 
ville’s seedling raised in 1823 at Chel- 
sea, England, which became the first 
of a valuable race, still extensively 
grown under glass in this country, and 
G. Ramosus a seedling of G. Blandus, 
introduced in England about 1835 
which added more desirable seedlings, 
flowering later than the Colvilei. 
The introduction of the famous 
Gandavensis in 1840 was "the real start- 
ing point of the modern garden Gladi- 
oli.” To M. Beddinghaus, gardener 
to Due d Aremberg, belongs the honor 
of producing this important seedling, 
a cross between Psiltacinus and Cardi- 
nalis, so it was announced at the time, 
but the parentage was questioned by 
Dean Herbert, and our author inclines 
to the belief that Psiltacinus and Op- 
posiliflorus were the parents. This 
valuable hybrid was purchased and 
introduced by Louis van Houtte and 
"created a furor in the Gladiolus 
world.” 
It does not appear that any of the 
seedlings of those days have survived 
except the famous Brenchleyensis, pro- 
duced by Mr. Hooker, of Brenchley, 
about 1846, and still very much in evi- 
dence after seventy years of com- 
mercial life. 
M. Eugene Souchet, gardener for 
Napoleon III, was the most famous 
breeder of Gladioli of his time and an 
interesting story is told in connection 
with the visit of Queen Victoria in 
August, 1855. When the Queen in- 
spected the royal gardens at Fontaine- 
bleau the flower borders were decor- 
ated with cut spikes of Gladioli set in 
vases among the plants. How this 
resulted in the greatly increased popu- 
larity of the flower in England is ex- 
plained by an unknown writer of the 
time : 
"Few flowers have made in so short 
a space of time such rapid progress in 
public favor as the Gladiolus * * * * 
the French were beginning to draw our 
attention to the bulbs and new varie- 
ties were reaching us from the other 
side when our gracious Sovereign gave 
a great impulse to their culture by 
taking them under her special patron- 
age. Their being placed on the royal 
table led the frequenters of the court 
to follow the example set them and a 
demand almost unprecedented in the 
history of flowers has arisen.” 
Victor Lemoine of France, who died 
about five years ago, developed a 
number of seedlings from the pur- 
pureo-auratus which are now known 
as Lemoinei. 
Herr Lechtlin produced G. Lechtlinii 
by crossing Gandavensis with Saun- 
dersii. This strain was brought to 
America, renamed G. Childsii and be- 
came at once deservedly popular. 
Gladiolus Primulinus, a clear yellow 
which has been of greatest value to 
breeders was discovered by J. F. Last 
in 1887, and flowered at Kew, 1890. 
The author says this was introduced 
by Sir John Kirk in 1884 as G. Quartini- 
anus, but everybody knows it now as 
Primulinus. Thorburn introduced it 
in this country in 1908, and the story 
of its great popularity and the beauti- 
ful seedlings produced by crossing and 
recrossing with our best garden varie- 
ties is familar to all. 
There is an interesting chapter on 
the " History of Gladioli in America.” 
The printed record begins with Mc- 
Mahon’s "Gladioluses” in 1806. Breck, 
Thorburn, Landreth and Hovey cata- 
loged them in their early editions at 
12 cents to 50 cents each. E. S. Rand, 
Jr., of the Massachusetts Horticultural 
( Concluded on page 47.) 
