GLADIOLUS NATALENSIS, VAR. WILLMOREANUS. 
GLADIOLUS NATALENSIS, Var. WILLMOREANUS. 
Nat. Order , Iridaceje. 
Generic Character. —Gladiolus, Tournefort. Perianth co- 
rolline, superior, irregular; tube rather terete; limb six-parted 
and two-lipped, the lobes unequal. Stamens three, inserted in 
the tube of the perianth, erect or sub-secund, included or ex- 
serted; filaments filiform ; anthers linear, affixed by the hack 
above the base. Ovary inferior, obtusely three-sided, three- 
celled ; ovules numerous, in many rows in the central angle of 
the cells, pendulous, anatropous; style filiform; stigmas three, 
petaloid-dilated. Capsule membranous, three-celled, loeulici- 
dally'three-valYed. Seeds numerous, pendulous, flat-compressed, 
winged, or more rarely globose, sub-baccate, with a loose or 
fleshy testa; raphe free within the testa. Embryo axile, but 
little shorter than the fleshy albumen, with the radicle reaching 
the hilum, superior. Herbs rare in central Europe, and the 
Mediterranean region; abundant and varied at the Cape of Good 
Hope; root bulbous-tuberous; leaves two-ranked, equitant; 
flowers secund in a simple spike, very often nodding; spathe 
two-valved, persistent.— [Endl. Gen. Plant , 1239.) 
Gladiolus natalensis, Reinwardt .—Leaves sword-shaped, 
ribbed in the middle, obscurely nerved; flowers bell-shaped; 
outer segments broadly ovate, obtuse, and mucronulate; ante¬ 
rior inner segments linear oblong, the posterior obovate and 
convex. 
Synonymy.— Gladiolus psittaeinus, Hooker. 
Var. Willmoreanus. —Willmore’s Corn-flag, Flowers white, 
streaked with delicate rose-purple. 
T)ESCRIPTION.—A perennial herb, with “ bulbous-tuberous” roots, or conns, from which are 
^ produced the erect stems three to four feet in height, bearing two ranked, equitant, sword¬ 
shaped leaves, and terminated by the long crowded flower-spike. Flowers creamy white ; the 
three upper broad rounded divisions of the perianth streaked with delicate rose-purple ; the 
three lower narrow divisions with a strong central stripe of deep rose-purple, the same colour 
appearing, both internally and externally, just below the mouth of the tube of the perianth, and 
above its narrowed part. The individual blossoms are about three and a-half inches across 
when expanded, and are very numerous, forming a spike twenty inches long, of which our figure 
necessarily gives a very inadequate representation. 
History, &c. —The very fine and distinct Gladiolus represented in the accompanying plate, 
was raised and sent to us, along with some other almost equally fine varieties, by Mr. Cole, gar¬ 
dener to J. Willmore, Esq., of Oldford, near Birmingham. They were all obtained between 
G. gandavensis (written Gandavi, by Herbert; and sometimes gandiensis) and floribundus, the 
batch of seeds from which they were produced, having been saved from each of these kinds, 
mutually crossed. We presume they have flowered for the first time this season. Of the 
beauty of the variety before us, our plate, from its limited size, can convey no adequate 
notion: imagine a spike, nearly two feet long, crowded with the large and delicately marked 
flowers, and some idea of it may be realized. We hope shortly to present figures of the other 
varieties which have been named, Oldfordiensis, and roseo-purpureus, the former a delicate 
salmony flesh colour, the latter deep rose-red, both very distinct and beautiful. G. Wifl- 
moreanus has been named in compliment to Mr. Willmore, who is well known as a liberal 
patron of gardening. The subjoined remarks of Mr. Cole, on the culture and hybridization * 
of Gladioli, will render unnecessary any remarks of our own on the subject of culture.—M. 
ON THE CROSS-BREEDING AND CULTURE OF THE GLADIOLUS. 
By Mr. J. COLE, Gardener to J. Willmore Esq., Oldeord. 
7711 IIS highly interesting family of plants, though comprehending some fine varieties, still presents a 
IX want of novelty in the late flowering kinds; and, from this cause, new varieties in this class, 
possessing appreciable merit, will be certainly esteemed. The fact that, comparatively speaking, there 
are few novelties in this section of the family, is a noticeable circumstance, considering the freedom 
* While on the subject of hybridizing Gladioli, it may be useful to some of our readers to learn the experience of the late Dean of 
Manchester, as recorded in the Journal of the Horticultural Society (1847):—“ The genus Gladiolus, with the exception of the few 
species of which the lower lip is abbreviated, on which account these were erroneously formed into a separate genus, Anisanthus, 
by Sweet, is pretty uniform in the shape of the flower, with much diversity of size, colour, foliage, stature, and even seed, which 
last feature induced Sweet to build up another false genus, Sphserospora. Forty years ago I first crossed the large and brilliant 
scarlet and white Gladiolus cardinalis with the smaller, but more freely flowering, G. blandus, which sports with white, purple, and 
rose-coloured flowers, and (under the name of carneus, which was in truth rather a local variety of the same) of a coppery flesh- 
colour. The result was a fertile breed of great beauty, of which the prevailing colour was purplish roseate. Crossed again with 
cardinalis, it yielded florid plants, scarlet, copper-coloured, rose-coloured, white, and purple with endless variation. By a cross of 
the first mule, and of cardinalis itself with G. tristis, of which the flower is pale yellow with brown specks, deeper tints and rich 
speckling were introduced, with a difference in the foliage and seeds, the seed of G. tristis being smaller and longer, its leaves rigid 
and quadrangular, the transverse section exhibiting a cross. The seeds of cardinalis are like those of blandus, but larger. There 
can scarcely be two species more dissimilar than cardinalis and tristis in any genus which has the form of the perianth uniform, the 
latter having such remarkable leaves, narrow, rigid, and erect, a slender stem, with night-smelling flowers, and the former very 
VOL. II. YV 
