202 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 6 , 1858. 
know not another kind of white Horseshoe Geranium 
that could stand so much. 
This pink tinge, on the deep-blue ground of a Lark¬ 
spur, looks more of a purple, and spoils the blue as 
much as it does the white flower. TV as blue the origi¬ 
nal colour of the branching Larkspur ( consolida ) ? I 
think not; but that the pink and the white varieties I 
came first, and then the blue from them, as the white ! 
came from the pink Horseshoe Geranium; there is ' 
a constant tendency in the seedlings to revert to the j 
I original, or rather to assume a tinge of its colour. One ; 
! never sees this tinge in the bee Larkspur, if the best j 
blue flowers are marked for giving the seed; but, from j 
bad nurses, all medleys come occasionally. 
The Delphinium grandijiorwm , from Siberia, is the | 
truest, or, at least, tfle best blue of them all; the new 1 
formosum is of this breed, the breed of Delphinium 
\ grandiflorum, or, as we say when many kinds are from 
| one stock, Delph inium formosum, and Hendersonii , are 
| of the section of grandiflorum. It is very curious that 
Delphinium Chine use, the bedding kind, which is of the 
same section as grandiflorum, is liable to the same 
dirty pinkish tint as the branching Larkspur. 
Very beautiful flowers of the Chinese Larkspur were | 
sent to me, this season, from far down in the country ; 
all the blue ones—there were some nearly white— 
were marked with the pink tinge, which was supposed 
to come from a cross with Cardinule pollen. But 
Larkspurs are “queer” things to cross: they have 
three little crooked horns on the top of the seed-vessel, 
and these are the nurses, the female organs q each of the 
three has more than twelve stamens to give the pollen. 
These stamens come up from under the seed-vessel, and 
they cover the horns entirely out of sight, till most of 
the pollen is shed. Moreover, the anthers, or pollen- 
bags, take one week, in dull weather, to discharge their 
contents, the outer row of them and the farthest from 
the horns beginning, and so on, till those next to, and 
overshadowing, the horns are ripe, and shed their pollen 
last. A very long time, in the life of a pollen-bag, is 
twenty-four hours, but seven times twenty-four is given 
to the Larkspur to secure the breed true from stain, 
and it requires some degree of practice to make one 
confident of a cross in this family. 
I am almost certain that every good seedling which 
we yet possess in Delphinium , has been rather a chance 
seedling than a cross. If we have a real cross, it is 
formosum, and is from the pollen of Chinense, with 
some good seedling of grandiflorum. Now, as both of 
these are notorious seeders, they may be said to be 
good for crossing, but, in reality, tney are not so. 
Chinense should not become the mother of a cross by 
any means ; she is not true to cast, or in her own off¬ 
spring ; she is of the cast of grandiflorum, but has the 
faulty tinge in some of her seedlings, and her offspring 
are as varied, in aspect, as those of the human race. 
Do not trust her, therefore, as a mother of an improved 
and genuine race, but select her truest blue flowers, 
and dust their pollen on the horns of formosum, and 
the cross will be more branching than formosum, 
together with a greater degree of longer flowering and 
less stature,—all the qualities which are most valued in 
bedding Larkspurs. 
The moment the flowers of formosum, and of all other 
Larkspurs, are ready to open, the stamens must be 
extracted; for the outer row of them bursts on the same 
day that the flower opens ; but no Larkspur is ready 
for the pollen till the third day after the opening of 
the flower. When that is comprehended, there is not 
a flower on earth more easy to cross than a Larkspur. 
The “ spur ” is like a Trench horn, with the wide 
mouth uppermost, and behind the horns, or pistils; and, 
if you divest another Larkspur flower of all the parts but 
the seed-vessel and the stamens, you can put its flower- 
stalk down in the French horn, or spur, and that will 
hold all the stamens right over the pistils, as com¬ 
pletely as if the spur was made on purpose for crossing- 
such flowers. One may understand the botheration of 
dusting one Larkspur flower three times a day, for 
three days at least, to be at all sure of a cross ; but, by 
the contrivance of the spur, the thing is perfectly 
certain at one dodge. Put up the head of the stamens 
for a cross, as soon as the outside ones begin to open, 
and let them take their chance ; some of them will be 
sure to hit the right time, as there are always twelve 
chances to one among the Larkspurs to do that, and 
the spur will hold the stalk of the pollen flower in the 
highest wind. Therefore, the proceeding is particu¬ 
larly simple when once seen, or practised, but very 
“ queer ” indeed in the absence of that knowledge. 
tSo much for gardeners who have done some crossing ; 
for amateurs, add the simplest facts as they occur. Your 
Delphinium formosum, or Hendersonii, or any of the 
race of Delphinium grandif I'orum is to be crossed with 
the pollen of Delphinium Chinense, in order to subdue 
the upright habit of grandiflorum, and make low 
branching plants, like Chinense, and like them to be 
continuous bloomers for bedding out. Blue being still 
our worst habited plants for bedders. 
From this time to the end of August, is the best 
time to get the Delphinium crosses ; and we shall sup¬ 
pose the amateur to ha ve his Delphinium formosum, or 
D. Hendersonii, in full bloom, and also his D. Chinense. 
The first thing is, to cut off every flower that has 
opened, from formosum, and next day to look into the 
fresh opened flowers,—say, three or four, or half-a- 
dozen, on the same plant; mark them for crossing 
that day, and destroy all the flower-buds on that 
shoot. In the centre of the flower will be seen a tuft, 
or tassel, of black-headed anthers, on very short 
stamens, but no pistils or female organs ; pull off the 
black anthers with the finger and thumb, or press the 
edge of a knife gently against them, and they will 
drop and leave a close bundle of short white stamens, 
but yet no appearance of the pistils. Over the bundle 
of stamens stands a parasol, in two parts, which are 
fixed to the spur, for the double purpose of screening 
the stamens from the sun and rain and for collecting 
the scattered pollen, by a contrivance of minute, silky 
hairs on the upper surface. But the parasol is not 
wanted for a crossed flower, so cut it right out, and 
then you have the tube of the spur wide"open at the 
back of the stamens, just ready to receive the stalk of 
the flow T er, whose pollen is to make the cross. Now 
everything is ready for the three brides ; they will 
appear shortly, in a day or two, according to the 
weather, after the stamens are taken out. They will 
be in the centre of the bundle of stamens, and not at 
all good looking,—only dumpy, little, crooked things, 
like three little horns. But, as soon as they are in 
sight, suspend a bundle of stamens of Chinense over 
them, by divesting the Chinense flower of all the parts, 
except the stamens and the stalk ; and the stalk is to 
be thrust down into the tube of the spur, till the 
stamens are brought immediately over the three horns, 
when the work is finished. 
With conveniences for wintering very delicate seed¬ 
lings, the seeds from such crosses may be sown as 
soon as they are ripe, and as late as the end of 
November. I sowed these kinds of seeds last October 
and November four times, and once in the first week 
in December; and I have few “ conveniences,” prac¬ 
ticality—if there is such a word—serving me in place 
of hothouses and all the rest of it: I hardly lost one 
of these Larkspur seedlings, and some of them were 
in bloom before the end of May. But mine are not 
crossed seedlings ; the idea of crossing them came to 
me from a duke’s gardener this season. I saw the 
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