231 
JOURXAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
t m..rc£i SO, 1890, 
borne on each scape, I think I am justified in placing Eucharises 
in the front rank of profitable flowers. As a rule far too 
much fuss is made in packing the flowers for transit. We 
merely line a shallow fancy soap box for sending a few, and a thin 
mustard box for larger quantities, with either soft dry moss or 
cotton wool, this being covered with tissue paper. A small piece of 
well moistened cotton wool is wound round the short footstalk of 
each flower, this being most necessary in warm weather, and all are 
packed closely together face upwards, being then covered with a 
sheet of tissue paper, over this a layer of cotton wool, on which 
the lid closes tightly. The flowers cannot shift, and we have never 
had a complaint of their travelling badly. Small boxes are sent 
by post, heavy ones by rail. It is useless to send stale flowers. 
All should be gathered directly they are fully expanded, and placed 
in a cool room till they can be sent away.—M. H. 
BLENHEIM PIPPIN AND OTHER APPLES. 
Blenheim Pippin is undoubtedly one of our very best Apples, 
and its fruit is entirely worthy of the high estimation in which it is 
so generally held, for in it we have a remarkable development of 
every characteristic of the best market fruit—large size, handsome 
shape, high colour, and with this is combined the intrinsic merit of 
rich-flavoured juicy flesh. But alas ! the noble fruit is almost as 
rare as it is rich, and it was with a feeling little short of downright 
amazement that I saw this Apple recommended repeatedly in the 
Times and other newspapers as a leading sort for profitable fruit 
culture. No doubt the fruit commands a brisk sale when you can 
get it, but that is just the point—it is a shy bearer, not only as a 
young tree but in its prime. I have tried it in every way—-as a 
standard, bush, pyramid, and espalier ; in a deep natural loam, in 
specially prepared soil on different stocks, and in different counties ; 
but nothing which I have done, or have seen done by others, has 
had any material influence upon its barren nature. 
It was in the year of the great comet in the fifties that I had a 
standard tree of it in a grass orchard, heavily laden with splendid 
fruit, several bushels of which was stolen off the tree one night by 
some rogue, whose judgment was better than his principles. That 
orchard was in my hands for the next six years, but I never had 
another crop of fruit on the Blenheim Pippin. Since then I have 
seen a few good crops of it, and have more than once heard the 
owner of the fruit boast of his good fortune in having for once got 
a crop for such a rarity. I tried it in Sussex, both on the free 
stock and the Paradise, but failed 'to obtain fruit during all the 
years (some fifteen or sixteen) that the trees were in my hands. 
These trees were part of a large selection of sorts, common and 
uncommon, made for me by Dr. Hogg, and among them was an 
Apple named Cobham, the fruit of which bea'-s so close a resem¬ 
blance to Blenheim Pippin that it only requires a little more colour 
to pass muster as a veritable Blenheim. It is quite as juicy, is as 
rich in flavour, the flesh is more tender and sweet, the fruit keeps 
good longer, and, what is more to the purpose, it comes freely upon 
the trees when they are quite young, so that it proved entirely 
worthy of its character of an early and abundant bearer. The 
tree grows with such vigour on the Paradise stock that it soon 
attains to a large size, and from its vigour and fruitfulness is 
worthy of a place with such fine sorts as Warner’s King and Lane’s 
Prince Albert as a capital substitute for Blenheim Pippin. 
Cox’s Orange Pippin is rightly regarded as a substitute for 
Ribston Pippin. It has also been recommended as a substitute for 
Margil, which certainly is a mistake so far as my experience goes, 
for I have found Margil on the Paradise stock a sure bearer, yield¬ 
ing fruit early and abundantly, and if possible the trees become 
more fruitful with age, the spurs being crowded with blossom buds, 
the wood growth being perfectly healthy without a trace of canker. 
Planted in the same soil, Cox’s Orange Pippin on the Paradise 
made magnificent pyramids and bush trees, and there were equally 
fine espaliers of it on the free stock, but where it had one fruit 
Margil had a bushel, so that I for one am bound to give Margil 
preference, both for the home supply and for market. It ought 
certainly to hold an important place in profitable fruit culture. 
To show how difficult it is to recommend Apples for general 
cultivation I may mention Court Pendh Plat, of which there were 
several fine standards in the grass orchard which I have mentioned. 
They were uniform pictures of health, and generally had an abun¬ 
dant crop of fine fruit, the production of which is all the more 
certain from the late flowering habit of the tree. These trees were 
in the deep rich loam of the Cherry orchard district of North 
Kent, but some others which I subsequently planted in Sussex 
became so crippled by canker as to be worthless. In the Kentish 
loam Red Astrachan answered perfectly, and I know nothing more 
beautiful among Apples than its deep crimson fruit covered with a 
delicate bloom, but I could do no good with it in Sussex, where 
the trees certainly grew freely and were healthy, but they never 
had a fruit. This was in the ironstone district, where much of the- 
soil contained so much oxide of iron that fruit which thrives in it 
has very highly coloured fruit, and I retain a lively remembrance- 
of the magnificent appearance of some trees of Fearn’s Pippin 
in full bearing, every branch being crowded with handsome glossy 
crimson fruit.—E. L. 
PLANT HYBRIDISM. 
[A paper by Mr. Lewis Castle, read at the Ilorticultaral Club, March llth^ 1890.] 
No subject connected with horticulture presents so many 
features of interest and importance as plant hybridisation ; it has: 
been closely studied by some of the best observers and most skilful 
practitioners, numberless facts are recorded bearing upon the 
matter, and extraordinary results have been achieved. To review 
the results alone would require a large volume, but to provide 
matter for discussion it will only be necessary to touch upon a few 
points, and detail observations or experiments illustrating them. 
It must, however, be premised that it is exceedingly difficult to 
draw up any general rules, as what is found to hold good in one 
family, or even in one genus of plants, does not apply with the- 
same force in others, and where any general principle can bo 
defined the exceptions are often so numerous that its value is- 
considerably diminished. This no doubt is mainly due to the 
impos.sibility of providing identical conditions in every case, aniS 
also to the fact that though so much is known regarding plant 
fertilisation there are still many mysteries or seeming anomalies to- 
perplex investigators. Fortunately in certain marked groups of 
plants—sometimes merely the varied descendants of one species— 
hybridising or crossing has been reduced to a system, and after 
long experience those engaged in the work can predict with some- 
approach to accuracy the probable results of their experiments. 
With an extension of such methodical observations we may expect- 
much which is now obscure will be ultimately elucidated. 
Influence of Pollen and Seed Parents. 
One portion of the subject which merits especial attention is a 
consideration of the relative effects of the pollen and seed plants 
employed as parents in the production of hybrids. "We have to 
deal with some of the principal phenomena of plant life, and the- 
results of the innumerable experiments would appear to give us- 
good foundation for definite rules. This, however, is far from 
being the fact, and we can only generalise in the majority of cases. 
In the Orchid family perhaps hybridising has been reduced more 
nearly to a system than in any others, and the number of reversed 
crosses exactly resembling the product of the original cross is so- 
great it points to the conclusion that the pollen and seed parents 
have but little special effect. One of the most skilful and success¬ 
ful of Orchid hjbiidisers writes me on this subject as follows :— 
“ In no case can I see one hybrid but what is quite intermediate in 
habit of plant and shape of flower, though in some cases out of 
the same seed pods we get variety of colours. In every case if 
possible we take the strongest plant for the seed parent. We 
always have an object, but in some cases are disappointed, and 
those concerning -w'hich we are most hopeful are often the most 
disappointing. Some hybrids, particularly in the Cattleya family, 
even before flowering are exactly intermediate in habit between 
the two parents, that any person who knows the family well can 
read the parents in the plant. Take Cypripedium Sedeni, for 
example, from C. Schlimi crossed with C. longifolium, and the 
reversed cross. These are so nearly alike that we cannot distin¬ 
guish one from the other ; habit of plant, time of flowering, leaves, 
length of flower-stem, shape and colour of flower, are all the 
same.” 
An example of this fusion of characters was afforded at a recent 
meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, when plants of the 
hybrid Cypripedium Lathamianum were e.xhibited from C. Spiceri- 
anum crossed with C. villosum, and from the reversed cross the 
r esults were practically identical. In a few instances the reversed 
cross has resulted in something of .i slightly different character, as- 
for example in Zygopetalums, Z. pentachromum having been raised 
from Z. Mackayi crossed with Z. maxi Hare, and Z. Sedeni from the 
reversed cross. In the majority of instances, however, there is a 
fusion of character that is rarely seen in other plants. 
The term hybridising is now usuaUy confined to the fertilisation 
of one species by the pollen from another, and crossing to the same 
operation effected between varieties of one species ; the latter 
