January 17, 1889. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
49 
was not to distribute any more moisture than could be avoided when 
little firing is required to keep up a minimum temperature of 65° to 70°, 
otherwise mildew would be likely to attack the plants. From this I 
should infer that an atmosphere heavily charged with vapour at the 
temperature given might be designated “hot and moist.” Yet Mr. 
Ward follows this up immediately with the contradictory note that 
“ excess of moisture in connection with a low temperature productive of 
mildew.” What he considers a low, or even a hot, temperature would, I 
think, explain this point. Another phase of the matter is, if as your 
correspondent appears to believe that it is the low moist atmospheric 
temperature that causes the disease to attack the plants, wby does he 
condemn as a new and misleading doctrine the escape of moisture from 
a hot atmosphere if, as he says no practical man would entertain so 
obviously wrong an idea of a hot moist atmosphere being favourable to 
the growth of mildew? If the theory on the origin of mildew is 
correct, how does he explain the phenomenon of the generality of 
plants being affected with that disease more severely during a hot dry 
summer than is the case in a cold wet one ?— M. Coombe. 
NATIONAL CHRYSANTHEMUM SOCIETY’S 
CONFERENCE. 
The Conference held in conjunction with the National Society’s 
Midwinter Exhibition in the Royal Aquarium, Westminster, on January 
9th and 10th last, proved a very successful gathering. Over 200 
growers and amateurs were present, and in the absence of the President, 
Mr. E. Sanderson, through illness, Mr. Wm. Holmes was elected to take 
the chair, and he performed the duties with impartiality and despatch. 
The gallery where the meeting was held was not well fitted for a con¬ 
ference, and the readers of the papers had some difficulty in making 
themselves heard, but it is expected that on some future occasion a similar 
gathering will be held, for which adequate provision will be made, as it 
is evident considerable interest is taken in such meetings. The paper 
by Mr. E. Molyneux on “ Manures for Chrysanthemums,” and that 
by Mr. C. Gibson on “ Damping in Chrysanthemum Blooms,” which we 
published last week, were read first, and were well received by the 
audience. As they, to some extent, dealt with allied subjects, it was 
thought advisable to let the discussion follow the two. 
Mr. J. Doughty, in offering a few remarks, said that in his experi¬ 
ence he had found ground bones preferable to bonemeal as a manure 
for Chrysanthemums. The soil he had to deal with was heavy and 
tenacious near the surface. The ground bones, while supplying food for 
the plants, assisted in keeping the soil open. He had observed, in 
addition to the two forms of damping mentioned by Mr. Gibson, a third, 
which apparently resulted from scalding by exposure to bright sun. 
Several varieties were mentioned, including Bronze Queen, Edwin 
Molyneux, Perle Precieuse, and Gloriosum which were thus affected, 
but after covering the house with mats during bright weather the injury 
was checked. 
Replying to Mr. Doughty, Mr. Molyneux said that his experiments 
pointed to the conclusion that bonemeal was the best, but he employed 
more lightening material in the soil with it. Mr. R. Falconer Jameson 
pointed out that dissolved bones and ground bones were quite distinct 
substances, and he considered that plants obtained more nutriment from 
bones reduced to powder than from those broken in large pieces. He 
also asked if anyone had used the Thanatophore for fumigating Chrys¬ 
anthemums, and whether cultivators had found that the steam injured 
the blooms, but the question brought no response. Mr. E. Beckett said 
his experience was entirely in favour of ground bones, though he had 
also used dissolved bones. 
Mr. Kipling next read his paper on “ Midwinter Chrysanthemums,” 
which appeared in this J ournal last week. The subject was treated in 
a practical and useful manner, but did not evoke any discussion. 
Mr. N. Davis followed with a paper on “ Sports,” which is appended 
to this notice, and the subject was evidently one in which many were 
interested. At its conclusion Mr. G. Gordon said he should not attempt 
to discuss the admirable paper Mr. Davis had read, but he would like 
to call attention to the important position sports occupied in the section 
devoted to incurved Chrysanthemums. In the select list in the 
National Society’s catalogue more than one-fourth were sports. The 
importance of sports was still farther demonstrated in an audit of the 
first prize flowers staged at forty of the principal exhibitions last year. 
Of the seventy varieties included, thirty-one had originated as sports, 
and of the 1308 flowers 639 were sports ; while of the twelve varieties 
at the head of the audit seven were sports, with 430 blooms out of a 
total of 750. He thought more attention should be given to raising 
seedlings of incurved varieties, and hoped the subject would receive 
consideration at a future conference. Mr. J. Crute and Mr. Piercy 
continued the discussion, and asked several questions, which were an¬ 
swered by Mr. Davis. 
Votes of thanks were accorded to the readers of the papers, and the 
Chairman brought the proceedings to a close. 
CHRYSANTHEMUM SPORTS. 
[This paper was written by Mr. N. Davis, Camberwell, for Mr. Lewis Castle’s “Chrys¬ 
anthemum Annual of 1889,” and read at the National Chrysanthemum Society's- 
Conference, January 9th.j 
No plant, so far as I am aware, can bear comparison with the 
Chrysanthemum for its proclivity to what is generally termed sporting. 
Anyone studying the scientific features of these flowers in this respect 
cannot but be intensely interested in tracing the origin of these 
so-called sports. The word sport does not to my mind seem a very 
appropriate one ; the nearest definition we have of the word is playful or 
freakish, and hence we hear sports called freaks of Nature. Now a 
freak of Nature is a monstrosity, something abnormal, or a distinct 
departure from Nature’s laws, as for instance fasciation—fruit or 
other trees flowering out of their natural time, foliage becoming 
variegated, &c. Such freaks as these may arise from disease or climatic 
influences, whereas Chrysanthemum sports are developed on a fixed 
principle, probably by purely chemical means, and I should say 
admit of explanation. However, the term is not a question of great 
moment. 
In this paper I will glance through several features in connection 
with sports in order to show that Nature works with man, not against 
him by any eccentric divergence, except on rare occasions, as before 
said, of unnatural freaks ; and that these changes in colour in the 
Chrysanthemum take place in such a systematic order as to give 
encouragement to the scientific man to find out by experiments the 
causes that are at work, enabling him eventually to wrest from Nature 
its secrets, and then, so to speak, place at his disposal the knowledge 
how to produce these sports at will. 1 shall show that sports are 
divided into two sections—the simple variation on the original ground 
colour, and the complete change or cross from one section to the other. 
I shall also speak of the natural colours of flowers, then trace the 
variation from the primitive colour we find belonging to the Chrys¬ 
anthemum, and give a list of such sports known more generally to 
Chrysanthemum growers of the present day, 
In the first place, from how many distinct colours do we suppose 
that the many thousands of tints seen in numberless flowers have 
originated? That all flowers have originated from comparatively few } 
I think no one will question, that of original colours there must have 
been fewer still. If anyone was to ask me which I considered the most 
distinct colours in flowers, I should point them to the British ensign? 
and in the red, white, and blue there displayed I think we have the 
three colours from which all others are derived. Yellow is the next 
important colour, but whether yellow is, or was, an original colour of 
itself, or a variation from the white, is doubtful. 1 shall at all events, 
I think, be able to show that it is but a secondary colour in the Chrys¬ 
anthemum. Red is an original colour, and as a ground folour does nob 
appear in these flowers. What reds we do find are simply reflections- 
on a distinct ground colour. A true red must be a self colour—as, for 
instance, in the scarlet Pelargonium. But where one colour is simply a 
reflection on another, in such instances the ground colour changing it 
also creates a different reflection ; thus the colours red and purple are 
really the same ; the white reflects a purple, but the yellow turns it into 
red, and neither red nor purple are produced as ground colours of them¬ 
selves. I have come to the conclusion that the ground colour of a 
flower can only be changed at the original starting point. Take another 
class of flowers, the Pelargoniums. Some are trying to produce a yellow 
through the medium of the scarlet, but I fancy they will work in vain, 
for careful study leads to similar facts as I have pointed out in the Chrys¬ 
anthemum. We get purple as well in the Pelargonium, not as a sport, 
but as a separate cross by fertilisation. A yellow Pelargonium, in my 
mind, can only be produced from a white flower, and then only by cross 
fertilisation with a species bearing flowers containing the desired colour. 
So it is with the Chrysanthemum. We have but two ground colours? 
neither of which will produce anything but reflections. Unless a new 
colour enters by a change gradually from the white in the same way as 
yellow has done, it cannot come at all, and I should say that it could 
not be done unless by cross fertilisation with other flowers as mentioned 
before. 
It must be difficult in a paper like this to explain all one’s reasons, 
but I have long ago come to the conclusion that it is almost impossible 
to expect any other distinct colour in the Chrysanthemum, that is either 
a scarlet or a blue. Take another flower, the Primula. Some people 
expect to raise a true blue from a lavender. I do not say it cannot be 
done, though I very much doubt it. Lavender is but a variation from 
a white. There is none of the force from which a blue may be produced. 
