November 10, 18>7. ] 
JOURNAJ OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTaGE GARDENER. 
407 
next thins to consider was that there were no early or semi-double sorts 
to be obtained, which shut off progress in that direction ; but in a season 
or two, through the craze for single flowers, one was saved by W. H. Cul- 
lingford, Esq., of Crouch House, Seaford, Sussex, from seed he had from 
Mr. Hartland of Cork, Ireland, for which reason it was named Hartland’s 
Marguerite. From that last season I grew good ripe fertile seed. When 
I first raised seedlings years ago it was, of course, from foreign seed, and 
my first season they grew with vigour; leaves, stems, and roots all 
through the summer, but neither buds or flowers appeared. I was then 
told, “ Oh, they do not bloom the first summer,” so grew them on again 
the next. When well into the autumn they did flower, but proved 
useless. I afterwards grew others, but always thought from the results 
then in bloom, or anything near, and some are not now (October 30th). 
But the surprising part was the great variation, for no one would have 
thought, without the same experience, that they could have all come 
from the same plant, foliage, habit, and strength being so different; 
some very strong, others very weak ; some tall, some short; but none 
was so tall as the parent. Though two were earlier, most are later. 
This great divergence is very stranae and instructive. It is so different 
from our wild Chrysanthemum (C. leucanthemum), which does not 
vary in the least when grown from seed. I may mention here that at 
Santa Barbara, California, Mr. Holland says the seed of Chrysanthemums 
there falls out and germinates when the rain comes. He does not say 
what sorts, but I suspect only semi-double or single sorts. We want a 
Fig. 52.—CRINUM 
KIRKI (See page 398). 
that the seed was saved in the most slovenly way from very indifferent 
and mixed plants. 
A season or two ago, Mr. Thorpe of Queen’s, New York, U.S.A., sent 
me a small parcel of seed, to me of unknown parentage, from which I 
raised about 120 plants, sowing in slight heat on the 1st of March, one 
of which turned out good dwarf and very early, called Piercy’s Seed¬ 
ling. Two others fairly good did not bloom that season in time to judge 
them, but did in 1886. They are Ella Zuila and Crimson Anemone. These 
seedlings, like all others, were very various. This seed of my own 
growing was not so good-looking as the trade seed is, and more resembled 
that sent from New York, for with a glass you may pick out almost 
every seed that will grow. I sowed my own seed on the 1st of March 
in heat, and by the end of August two plants had bloomed, and I believe 
one had ripened seed. - -All the others, thirty-six in number, were not 
few enthusiastic amateurs like the Rev. F. Freeman of Wickersly 
Rectory, Rotherham, to carry on this work. 
I may suggest that the new Leoni Lassali is a promising sort for a 
seed parent, having pollen in some flowers. It will bloom in May from 
old plants, or struck cuttings the summer before. Roi des Prdcoces, too, 
though later, like Leoni Lassali, has a little pollen. Our great want is a 
good early crimson Japanese, or in fact any other sort if of good colour 
and one suitable for lamplight. Roi des Prdcoces is acceptable for this 
reason, I believe, for as a flower it has neither size nor form to recommend 
it. It is not unlikely that Mrs. Le Moult, although little more than a 
single, will prove saleable as a cut flower, as it is a good colour, a robust 
plant, and profuse bloomer, though not quite so early as Roi des Prdcoces, 
flowering from the middle to the end of October.— W. PlEBCY, 89, I Vest 
Hoad, Forest Hill, 8. EL 
