THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Junk 
156 
experiments, detached notices of which appeared in 
several works on which lie was engaged. In one of 
these works, on the Geranium , he gives some very in¬ 
teresting details of how our window geraniums began 
first to be obtained, by crossing some of the wild 
species from the Cape. I spent a whole day, last 
summer, looking through this work in the library of 
the Horticultural Society; and to compare, in one’s 
mind, the noble specimens of geraniums that were 
exhibited that week with the little weeds from which 
they originated, was, indeed, a most singular con¬ 
trast. 
Thirty years of patient industry were expended 
before a geranium was obtained that would be now 
thought good enough to plant out in a common 
shrubbery. Many now regret that the breed or 
present race of geraniums is not more varied into 
sections, as they might have been, had the best co¬ 
lours of the original parents been followed out, each 
in its own strain, instead of pushing on with only a 
few which yielded more readily to the impatient hy¬ 
bridizer, as has been done, more recently, in the case 
of the calceolarias. The older florists, however, had 
more reason to be content with what they could get, 
as few families that have been experimented on in 
this way are so obstinate as the geraniums to part 
with their wild characters. I know of only one other 
instance, the Lobelia, where the offspring of species 
almost identical in character and aspect becomes ab¬ 
solutely sterile at the first or second generation, like 
some of those of the wild geraniums. 
In 1837, Dr. Herbert published a large work, with 
coloured plates, on an extensive division of bulbs 
allied to the Amaryllis, to which he appended a full 
description of Ins own experiments in hybridizing 
for 30 years, as well as a history of what others had 
effected in the same field, both here and on the con¬ 
tinent, This may be said to be the first popular 
account of cross-breeding, in the vegetable world, 
which appeared in any language, and it gave a pow¬ 
erful impetus to the art in both hemispheres. Before 
the appearance of this work, the crudest absurdities 
were in circulation about cross-breeding. We have 
all of us since mended our ways, but many weeds 
spring rip yet here and there. In 1847, Dr. Herbert 
wrote two long papers on the same subject, in the 
Journal of the Horticultural Society, full of the phi¬ 
losophy of hybridizing, and containing many start¬ 
ling facts ; in short, after the investigations of 40 years, 
he has here summed up the result of his own views 
on the subject, founded on the facts he and others 
had brought to light by cross-breeding. He finally 
arrives at this conclusion, “ Can we, in the face of 
these phenomena, assert that no vegetable since the 
period before the sun and moon gave it light, no bird 
or fish since the Almighty called them forth from the 
salt mud, no creature of the earth since it was evoked 
from the dust, can have departed from its precise 
original structure and appearance? Let us be more 
humble in our assumptions of scientific knowledge, 
less bigoted and self sufficient in our examination of 
revealed truth, and let us give glory to the infinite 
and unfathomable power and wisdom of God. I call 
it self-sufficient to hold that ancient and obscure 
words can have no possible meaning but that which 
we have been in the habit of attributing to them in¬ 
considerately. It maybe unacceptable to the botanist, 
who has been accustomed to labour in his closet over 
dry specimens, and think he can lay down precise 
rules for the separation of genera, and look with com¬ 
placency upon the scheme he has worked out, to find 
that the humblest gardener may be able to refute him, 
and force him to reconsider the arrangement he has 
made; but the fact is so. The cultivator has the test 
of truth within his scope: and, far from being an 
evil, I look upon it as a great advantage, because it 
will lead the industrious and intelligent gardener to 
take a higher view of the objects under his care, and 
to feel his own connexion with science ; and it will 
force the scientific to rely less on their own dictation, 
and to feel that they must be governed by natural 
facts, and not by their own preference.” 
Without “facts,” we may pursue and detail our in¬ 
vestigations of the mystery of cross-breeding to little 
purpose; there is no safety without actual facts, for 
there is no room yet for much useful theorising. To 
facts, therefore, let us return, and see how the Gladioli 
are best crossed. They are, of all plants, the easiest 
to cross, and the result of the operation is soon 
known. It is now just 42 years, this summer, since 
the first gladiolus was crossed in England ; and if it 
was crossed elsewhere before that time, we have no 
record of it. Therefore, all that is now known 
respecting the breeding qualities of this family was 
ascertained by a few individuals as far back as 20 or 
30 years since. There is one point, however, which 
seems to be of much importance, that has lately been 
mooted in private circles respecting this family, viz., 
that the higher it is cultivated the more certain it is 
to produce extra fine hybrids. Although I am quite 
at home with this family, I cannot say if this is a 
real fact or not, but I believe in it. Like all other 
plants that are to be crossed, the gladiolus must have 
the anthers cut out before they open to relieve the 
pollen. Suppose we have only two sorts, however, 
and that we wish to obtain seeds from both, each by 
the pollen of the other. Now, this was a puzzle in 
my early crossing days, but it is plain enough now r . 
It has been ascertained that pollen which was dried 
with a flower on a specimen, and kept in a book or 
herbarium for a number of years, was capable of 
undergoing a similar process to that of fertilizing a 
stigma, when placed in water or otherwise damped ; 
but it was not ascertained if such pollen could ferti¬ 
lize seed or not. This account was published in 
1829,4 and, from that day to this, I have every sea¬ 
son reserved unripe pollen for days, weeks, and even 
months; and I have some by me now six years old. 
I have found that pollen will ripen though taken from 
a flower at an early age, say some days before the 
anthers would open naturally; and all that is neces¬ 
sary for its preservation is an absolute exemption 
from damp, and not to be dried quickly if extracted 
before it is ripe. I believe there is no pollen but will 
keep a month or two, and that is quite enough for 
ordinary crossing. The best way to keep it is to fold 
it in silver paper, and to enclose this in coarse brown 
paper, the packets to be kept in a drawer in a dry 
room. 
Well, then, you see that with only two gladioli 
you may easily get a cross from each, unless you 
are extravagant enough to throw away the pollen; 
however, as the flowers of a gladiolus do not open 
all at once, there is no need of preserving the pollen 
at all; but I am anxious not to leave a stone unturned 
that would throw any light on the subject in hand. 
There is only one style in the centre of a gladiolus, 
and that divides into three parts, or stigmas, at the 
top, and is the part to dust the pollen on. When 
the parts are ready for the pollen, these stigmas open 
into two halves, or are dilated, as botanists say, and 
the edges of these little openings are the real stigmas. 
! The anthers which bear- the pollen are always in 
* Magazine of Natural History, vol. i.> page l. 
