September i, 1877.] 
THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 
273 
A strong reason for this opinion is in our 
judgment afforded by the fact seen this year for 
the first time, and now for the first time made 
public, of the existence not only of one bunch 
but of three, one of which is almost a Champion 
if not quite, the one above it, midway between 
the Champion and Trebbiano, and the third 
almost entirely Trebbiano. These intermediate 
bunches are to our minds most significant, 
and, if the history of the Champion were not 
known, would raise the question whether it had 
not originated as a sport in the first instance. 
But the Champion is stated by Mr, Thomson 
again is of composite origin ; so that some 
settling down or filtration of the constituent 
elements should occur is not only what we 
might expect, but what we know does happen 
in other cases. 
There is another explanation, but it is so im- 
probable that we merely mention it. In some 
few cases pollen-hybridisation has been known 
to affect, not merely the seedling plants, but 
also the fruit of the parent plant. Such cases 
have been recorded, but they must naturally be 
received with hesitation. But, assuming the 
possibility of such an occurrence, it might be 
seen is especially rich in good specimens of Catdeyas, 
Dendrobes, Phalsenopsis, Ly castes, Aerides, Odonto- 
glots, &c. Oar illustration was prepared from a 
beautiful photograph by the London Stereoscopic and 
Photographic Company. 
Flower Gardening at Cleveland 
House, Clapham Park, has now for several 
years past been remarkably well done, and many 
who have seen it expressed their conviction that 
there was room for little or no further improvement. 
That such opinions were incorrect is fully proved 
by the beautiful arrangements which Mr. Legg 
has this season mad?. We have heard it said of 
Fig. 57.— view in mr. hepburn’s orchid house. 
to have been raised as a cross between Mill 
Hill Hamburgh and Bowood Muscat. A sport 
or bud- variation is very frequently brought 
about by- a separation of heretofore mixed 
elements, or by the sudden reappearance of the 
characteristics of a former generation. The 
offspring of hybrid parentage often manifest in 
this manner their paternal and maternal charac- 
teristics in different plants. Bud-variation may 
be due to a similar disentangling of previously 
mingled elements, or it may constitute an en- 
tirely new combination — a fresh departure. The 
Culford Vine, according to the history given of 
it, must have, or have had comparatively 
recently, a mixture of elements derived from 
five or six sources ; each of those sources 
that the pollen rom the Golden Champion, 
transferred by bees of otherwise to the flowers 
of the closely adjacent Trebbiano, had caused 
the alteration in the berries of the latter. We 
know at once too much and too little of plant 
organisation to doubt the possibility of such 
occurrences, which must, like the Culford sports, 
be inquired into by the usual rules of scientific 
testimony. 
In cur last issue we gave an illustration of a 
magnificent specimen of Dendrobium Wardianum in 
the collection belonging to J. G. Hepburn, Esq., 
Sid cup Place, Kent, and have now the pleasure of 
placing before our readers a view in another of Mr. 
Hepburn’s Orchid-houses (fig. 57), which it will be 
the decorative gardening, known as carpet bedding 
that even when well done it admitted of so little 
variation that it was almost like ringing the changes 
on a peal of bells, which, to those not initiated in the 
performance, has much of a sameness about it. Yet 
so far is this from being the case that the plants that 
can be used in this description of gardening are suffi- 
ciently distinct in form, and possess such a variety of 
hues and shades as to admit of the most artistic and 
pleasing combinations of colour it is possible to con- 
ceive, and are the same time devoid of the too 
flat, even surface which conveys an idea that the 
object in view had been to pinch and distort every 
plant employed so as to destroy its individual character. 
“Carpet bedding” is no longer applicable to the 
greater portion of Mr. Legg’s work this summer ; 
“embossed bedding” would be a more expres- 
Botanical 
cm copyright reserved garden 
