404 
SUPPLEMENT TO THE BUBAL ttEW-YORKER. 
TUNE 43 
AZALEAS. 
(See engraving, page 403.) 
The azaleas grown in pots and commonly 
known as Chinese or greenhouse azaleas, are 
garden forms of Azalea Indica, a species in¬ 
digenous to China and Japan. They are 
evergreen shrubs, easily grown, long-lived, 
admirably adapted for greenhouse or window 
use, and so very floriferous that sometimes 
the blossoms completely bide from view the 
leaves and branches of the plants. The 
flowers are large, showy, siugle or double, in 
little bunches at the ends ol the small branches, 
and in color they vary from the purest white 
to the deepest red, and sometimes they are 
striped, flaked or margined with another color; 
sometimes also the edges of the flowers are 
frilled, as in A. crispittora, or hose-iu-hose, 
as in A. amoeua. The smallest plants will 
blossom, and, unlike oleander, Crape Myrtle, 
acacias, and other plants of shrubby or woody 
nature usually grown in pots, Chinese azaleas 
are unlikely 7 to become too large. Plants 25 
years old or more, find room enough in a 
12-inch pot. 
They are not very tender plants at all; in¬ 
deed, many of them are half hardy and A. 
aiucena is quite hardy in the vicinity of New 
York. Besides wintering them in the window 
or greenhouse, one can safely winter them in 
a cold pit, cellar or tight shed. Indeed, ProL 
Sargent, of Boston, who has an extensive 
collection of these azaleas, winters them in a 
cold pit and a cellar shed, partly as a matter 
of convenience in keeping them over Winter, 
and partly in order to retard their blooming 
season till May and Juno, when they are In 
their hey-day at the same time as the kalmias, 
rhododendrons and deciduous a zaleas. 
These azaleas blossom iu Spring, immedi¬ 
ately before they start into growth, and may, 
according to the kind and treatment, be had 
in flower at New 7 Year’s, or be retarded till 
May, at the will and pleasure of the culti¬ 
vator. Under ordinary cool greenhouse 
treatment, they blossom in March and April. 
In order to have them blossom early, they 
should be forced to complete and ripen their 
growth early in the year; then after a long 
inactive period in the Fall, they may be forced 
into flowering early without danger of “cast¬ 
ing” their buds and running to wood. Piants 
that mature their growth late in the season 
are not well suited for forcing. 
Azaleas should not be repotted every year, 
except when they are quite young and extra 
vigorous—once in two or more years is often 
enough. Soil rich, fibrous, sandy loam and 
well-rotted leaf mold. Pot firmly. Drain the 
pots well with clean, finely-broken potsherds, 
with a thin layer of half rotted leaves or other 
rough material over the drainage to prevent 
the soil from working into it and clogging it. 
At any period of their existence never allow 
azalea roots to get dry, and, if in pots, see to 
it that they never get frozen. During the 
summer months set the plants out of-doors 
with a slate or board under the pots to keep 
out the worms, and plunge the pots in a ridge 
of coal ashes, earth, half-rotted leaves or other 
material to preserve the earth and roots from 
drying too quickly, also to guard against 
water lodging in or about the pots in wet 
weather. Select a faintly shady place, but 
not under the drip of trees. Bring indoors 
before sharp frost sets in, 
Tlirips, a little greenish-yellow to black in¬ 
sect, is very partial and destructive to the 
leaves of azaleas. Tobacco-water will kill the 
yellow and dislodge the black ones. Buhaeh 
powder, it fresh, will also dislodge them. But 
Vigilant attention and frequent forcible 
syringings are needed to keep Chinese azaleas 
clean from thrips, red spider, mealy-bug, and 
other pests. 
The following are capital sorts common in 
cultivation: Bride of Abydos, white flaked 
with pink; Beauty of Europe, pink; Criterion, 
pink edged with white; Decora, bright, deep 
pink; Exquisite, white striped with pink; 
Fielder’s White, white; Flag of Truce, white, 
double; Flow er-of-the Day, white, striped 
with rose; Iveriana, white, striped with rose: 
King Leopold, rose; Stella, orange scarlet; 
and Variegata, salmon-pink variegated with 
white. 
But besides the Chinese azaleas, we have 
many other species and varieties of great 
beauty, perfectly hardy, and eminently fitted 
for our out-of-door gardens. Azalea calendu- 
laeea, the Flame-colored azalea of the Alle¬ 
ghany Mountains, aud A. Foutica, a yellow- 
flowered species from the Caucasus, are the 
parents of mostof the numerous hybrid decid¬ 
uous azaleas now cultivated in our gardens. 
The mass of there hardy azaleas are kuown’as 
Ghent Azaleas from the fact the Belgian uur- 
nerymen have done so much to improve these 
shrubs by means of cullivatian, hybridization 
and selection. The Purple (4. nudiflora) aud 
Clammy Azaleas (A. viscosa) common in 
swamps in our Eastern States, are well known 
to every rural child, and, given a sheltered, 
faintly shaded place in moderately moist soil, 
are available for cultivation in our upland 
gardens. The Smooth Azalea (A. arboreal from 
the mountains of Pennsylvania and Virginia, 
is a choice shrub with sweetly fragrant white 
to rose-tinged flowers. And one of the gayest 
and most copious of the genus is the Azalea 
mollis,a recent re-introduction from Northern 
Chiua, Its flowers are large, whitish-yellow 
or flame-colored. All azaleas are now includ¬ 
ed in the genus Rhododendron. 
i^liscfllanf0us- 
ON THE IMMEDIATE ACTION OF POL¬ 
LEN ON FRTJIT. 
Thomas Meehan, Editor of the Gardner's Monthly 
and State Botanist of Pennsylvania. 
Ox December 10th an ear of corn was placed 
on the table at tlie meeting of the Academy 
of Natural Science of Philadelphia, by Mr. 
Burnet Laudreth, the half of which on one 
side was brownish-red, the other creamy- 
white. For reasons given in the report of my 
remarks (p. 207, 18S4, Proe. Acad., Phila.), I 
showed that the result could not have been 
from the immediate influence of strange pol¬ 
len, but must have come from the operation 
of that innate power to vary, to which the 
first origin of color in corn—presuming all 
sprung from one form—must have been due. 
Passing from this to other supposed cases of 
immediate influence of pollen on seed-coats 
and pericarps. I said “The facts are interest, 
ing as bearing on many problems not yet 
wholly solved. * * * Bo far corn has been 
the chief, and almost the only evideuce, that 
the seed or its surroundings are immediately 
affected, but recently statements have been 
made that the receptacle in the strawberry— 
that which we know iu every-day life as tho 
strawberry—is similarly influenced. * * * 
Experience in other directions does not con¬ 
firm these views,” (p, 298 1. c ). 
The Philadelphia papers, the next morning, 
had rexiorters’ notes of what occurred, aud I 
suppose from one of these Science made me 
say, “It would, indeed, be strange if corn 
were the only plant in which such a change of 
color was produced by cross-fertilization; yet 
in the case of no other species had any change 
been observed." On this paragraph, iu Sci¬ 
ence of January 23d, Professor Asa Gray 
comments: “It is hard to believe that such a 
veteran horticultural editor aud copious 
writer as Mr. Meehau is not acquainted at 
first hands with some of the horticultural lit¬ 
erature upon this curious subject (extending 
from the year 1729 down to our own days), 
and which asserts that in various instances 
just such a change has been observed. It is 
harder to believe that a writer who has shown 
such a c itieal familiarity with Mr. Darwin’s 
writings should have entirely overlooked a 
section in Chapter xi. of Variations under Do- 
mesticaiiou, Vol. I , begiuning on fiuge 397, 
in which the principal observations, convinc¬ 
ing to Darwin’s mind us to the facts, are 
brought together, ami the sources referred to.” 
It w ill be seen that I did not suy that “no 
other change had been observed;’’ but that 
corn “was almost the only evidence.” Obser¬ 
vations in regard to cbauges have been very 
numerous; but the evideuce that the changes 
were really through the immediate action of 
pollen, to my mind, is chiefly derived from 
Indian com. Indeed, 1 have been amazed 
that gifted reasoners like Professor Gray or 
Mr. Darwiu, should regard the recorded state¬ 
ments as evidence on which to build the teach¬ 
ings they have taught. 
In view of the great practical importance 
of the question, in addition to its undoubtedly 
scientific interest, I will go over the whole 
subject so far as known. 
There is nothing in the cited page of Dar¬ 
win, except the simple statement that “two 
distinct varieties of peas spontaneously inter¬ 
crossed, as shown by the pollen of the one 
variety having acted directly on the seeds of 
the other.” Iu these days when so much is 
known of the innate power to vary—sports 
or bud-variation, as this style of change has 
been called—no one would care to take any 
“spontaneous” change as evideuce of the 
action of pollen. Not till we reucb page 470 
is there anything to the point, when Mr. Dar¬ 
win places the recorded observations as long 
ago as 1721). But there are those who believe 
it was known to the.ancients, and that Tbto- 
phrastus.(Book XL,Chapter4) ami Pliny later, 
had the same idea. But a reference to the 
originuls shows that the old Greek simply 
noted that pomegranates, sweet, would some¬ 
times have eour f ruit, and that a black vari- 
ety ufjtigs would now aud then take to pro¬ 
ducing white fruit. Pliuy (plagiarism uot 
being confined to modern times) has about 
word for word the same, but adds the grape 
aud a few others to 1 he list. Rut all these are 
“spontaneous” changes, and uot to the point. 
Very much is made by Mr. Darwiu of color¬ 
ed peas being found in pods along with light 
ones, but Dean Herbert showed, years before, 
in the Transactions of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, that the color of a plant permeated 
all its tissues—that is to say, that a plant us¬ 
ually with white flowers, sporting to red, 
would have the stems and petioles as well as 
the flowers, dark. The cotyledons—a part of 
the new plant—would partako of this bigbten- 
ed color. The dark color of a dark pea comes 
from its cotyledons, and this coloring matter 
may even be absorbed by the seed-coats. Major 
Clarke (Proc. Bot. Congress at Loudon, 188(5) 
made similar observations on colored and col¬ 
orless stock gillies. Wiegman long before bad 
gone over the ground with peas. Gaertuer 
also traversed the same field, not only with 
peas, but with other things, aud finally con¬ 
cluded that there “might be a possibility of 
change” in this way, but was sure that iu tbe 
majority of cases it was the result of “indi¬ 
vidual variation.'’ There is no doubt but 
bicolored seeds are found in the pods of yeas 
aud stock gillies, but when it is seen that the 
color comes from the cotyledon, which is a 
part of tho now plant, it is uot legitimate to 
place this to the account of an influence on 
the parts which more properly belongs to tho 
mother,and which is the whole question invol¬ 
ved. Mr. Thos. A. Knight, in the transac¬ 
tions of tho Hort. Soe f| with Mr. Goss’s exper¬ 
iments on peas fresh before him, takes similar 
ground. Mr. Goss thought impregnation 
of the Dwarf Imperial (white) with the Prus¬ 
sian Blue, was the immediate cause of the 
two blue peas witb the three white iu the pod; 
but be shows,in subsequent years,where there 
was no cross-fertilizatiou, that the same phe¬ 
nomena occurred, (Vol. V. p. 37, Trans. Hort. 
Soc.) In many of thesubsequeut illustrations 
given by Mr. Darwiu, tbe size of the seed 
vessel is noted as a sign of the immediate ac¬ 
tion; but Barely the modems will need better 
evidence? Tbeu he says that “it is known that 
grapes have been thus affected in color, size, 
and shape,” the “thus" meauing by the direct 
action of the pollen. 
It is surprising that with the credit Mr. 
Darwin has received for eaudor in giving 
opposing facts, he has not noted the many 
cases on record where just such changes have 
occurred without any chance for pollen to 
aid in them. Mr’. T. A. Knight iu the Tran9. 
Hort. Society, notes that a yellow plum tree 
once bore red fruit, and he repudiates, while 
stating the fact, the notion that pollen could 
have had anything to do with it. Dr. Asa 
Gray, noticing this iu a farm journal in 1874, 
suggests that Kuight was a disbeliever in the 
immediate influence of pollen on fruit, because 
he was prepos-essedin favor of bud variation. 
We bave no opportunity of knowing whether 
Mr. Kuight would think Dr. Gray prepos¬ 
sessed on the other side of the question. We 
may, however, conclude that the usually 
charitable and very generous Professsor of 
Cambridge has been betrayei into a hasty 
expression by a slip of tbe pen. which his 
cooler judgment would uot commend. 
Mr. Lorirr Blodgett notes, (Gardener’s 
Monthly p. 22, 1872), that a large grape-vine 
of Rogers’s No. 1, after beiug some years in 
bearing, boro branches with large, white ber¬ 
ries. having flesh as tender os tho European, 
and, at the same time there were branches 
with bunches of small, round, bright crimson 
berries, resembling the variety known as 
Rogers’s No. 9. Similar changes in grapes 
are noted by Carricre in lieime florticole for 
1884. In the Horticulturist for 1856, Mr. John 
J, Smith notes a gooseberry which one 
year had a freak to produce red and yellow 
fruit indiscriminately over the whole bush. 
The berries differed from each other in many 
respects, the red being superior in flavor. 
These instances are interesting os emphasizing 
a fact recently fully developed—that with 
change of color, flavor follows. There is no 
more reason for placing these changes iu 
fruits or seeds to the credit of polleu, than 
similar changes very common among flowers 
and which we know are duo to bud-variation 
only. CoL Wilder had three magnificent and 
very distinct varieties of cawelias, named 
Grace Sherwiu Wilder, Abbie Trephosa Wil¬ 
der aud Queen of Beauty-all f ports independ¬ 
ently of seed, from Mrs. Abby Wilder. A 
large number of the best roses now grown by 
florists are similar “sports.” 
Dr. Gray, in the paper above cited, makes 
much of a paper of Maxlmowioz, also cited, iu 
w hich the latter crossed the common bulbifer- 
ous lily, and L. davaricum, uud “the wavy pod 
of one developed directly into ft pod the shape 
of the other;” but in tbe original paper of 
Maximowicz, we see that the two species are 
regarded by otber botanists than himself, as to 
be practicully one thing; uud in a foot-note he 
tells us that since his paper was written, Mr. 
Baker of the New Museum had pointed out to 
him that he was really mistaken in one suppos¬ 
ed point of difference. Maximowicz proceeded 
to quote Dr. Kuuitz as saying “by direct in¬ 
fluence of pollen” a tomato bore a fruit of 
(like a) a capsicum—and Hartsen, an egg 
plaut with a tomato-like form. But in this 
country, we are familiar with many strange 
shapes which leaves and flowers, as well as 
fruit sometimes assume, without any right 
whatever to assert that the change in form 
w as due “to the direct influence of pollen.” 
Indeed, one might almost risk a deliberate 
chargeof beiug “prepossessed” iu saying decis¬ 
ively that in numberless cases of these sportive 
changes, the direct influence of pollen could 
have had nothing to do with them. Mr. 
Edward Wilkins, of Maryland, a very famous 
peach grower, had u branch producing necta¬ 
rines from an old peach tree, but bad no nec¬ 
tarines in his orchard (Gardeuor’a Monthly, 
Sept. 1876). In March of tho same year, the 
same magazine notes red potatoes, like Early 
Rose, coming from the roots of the white 
Peachblow, and similar experiences are com¬ 
mon. In the same magazine note Is made of 
differently colored sweet potatoes from one 
root—the sweet potato not flowering at all 
where new varieties from roots are not un¬ 
common. These and similar experiences are 
well known to cultivators, and it may be no¬ 
ted that the belief in this direct influence of 
pollen generally comes from those who have 
had the most limited cultural experience. Thus 
Dr. J. P. Kirtland, one of the famous scientists 
of his day aud founder of the Cleveland Acad¬ 
emy of Sciences, communicated to the Mass. 
Hort. Society, in 1876, a paper on the hybri¬ 
dization of a hickory by a Black Oak, the im¬ 
mediate product beiug an acorn-like (uot rum¬ 
inated) kernel in the hickory nut! Mere guess¬ 
work,like most of the other inferences, and es¬ 
pecially guess-work when we come to the apple, 
though Mr. Darwin tells us “no case of the 
direct action of the pollen of one variety on 
another is better authenticated or more re¬ 
markable than that of toe common apples.” 
(p.481,1—6). Better authenticated perhaps, 
but bad is the best! “Cases thus affected 
(change in the ovarium) were recorded by 
Bradley”—“A russeting and another mutual¬ 
ly affected each others’ fruit”—“A smooth 
apple affected a rough-coated kin i”—“Two 
very different apples bore fruit resembling 
each other on adjoining branches”—“The St. 
Valeny Apple, a pistillate, annually fertilized 
by girls of the neighborhood with pollen from 
other trees, bore fruit resembliug the pollen- 
iferous parent.” These are uot Darwin’s 
illustrations. None of them bear the test of 
modern criticism. Bradley’s note is about 
the so called “sour and sweet apple,” which, 
according to Mr. Jay, in the proceedings 
of the New York Agricultural Society, was 
brought about by splitting the buds of a Rhode 
island Greening and a Talroan Sweet. There 
is every reason now to believe that this idea 
of split-bud grafting was an ufter-thought. 
At any rate, Rhode Island Greening, a sour 
apple in the East, is a sweet apple as often as 
not on the Paciflc Coast. Iu any event, it is 
a case for graft-hybridism, uot of pollen in¬ 
fluence. Sour aud sweet are often found on 
the same trees iu other varieties. Of this 
class of facts is Livingston’s African experi¬ 
ence with bitter and sweet, melons (quoted by 
Maximowicz). Russetiugs, supposed by some 
writers affected by smooth varieties, are 
shown not to bo so affected, by other writers 
iu the same volumes which Mr. Darwiu quotes, 
though the fact seems to have boeu strangely 
overlooked. Mr. John Williamson, of Pit- 
mastou, one of the most persistent, of hybrid¬ 
izers and observers, to whom we owe the 
famous Bartlett Pear (Williams’s Bon Chre¬ 
tien in tho Old World), says “Apples usually 
covered by russet, are smooth in dry Sum¬ 
mers.” “The ‘Sam Young,’ an apple usually 
covered with russet, was wholly smooth in the 
year 1818” (Trans. Royal Hort. Society, 1829, 
page 505). Peter Collinson’s russet on a smooth 
upple.with Dr. Gray’s illustration of a Spitzen- 
berg witb russet on one side, -are almost con¬ 
tinual occurrences, wiiliout any room for sus¬ 
picion of tho uetion of pollen in the matter. 
Dr. Hamilton, of Cornwallis, Canada, notes a 
cluster of Pound Sweet apples—three iu the 
cluster—the central one a russet and differing 
in quality from the other two, but no Russet 
tree grew witbin ton rods (Gardener s Month¬ 
ly, iu 1867, p. 184). Such variations are ex¬ 
tremely common iu the apple, not merely in 
tho line of russet, but in many otber direc¬ 
tions. Mr. Charles Arnold, Paris, Ontario, 
Canuda, notes that a Spitzeuberg apple that 
he had uot noticed in many years to vary, 
produced “this season a branch, all the fruit 
on which bore no resemblance to the fruit of 
former years.” (Gardener’s Monthly, iu 1871, 
p. 43.) 
Does it stand to experience that all the 
fruit on one branch should be accidentally 
crossed aud none on the rest of the tree! This 
