271 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 31, I860. 
when all was put together, strictly, I think, observing directions 
as to the manner, &c., down went the sealing-wax to the bottom, 
and no coaxing could get it to mix with the mass. Now, where 
was my error, or was the error mine? Was it that I used too 
good sealing-wax ? for I do not know how the shell-lac com¬ 
posing it can mix with the grease. However, if the fault was 
mine, please to tell me; and if it was yours, in the receipt, please 
to correct it, as you know great authorities do either great good 
or great harm. This is a grumble for your contributor. 
Talking of grafting Rhododendrons, I have done without the 
tttlx and without having the stocks in-doors ; and if any of your 
readers feel an interest in the subject, here is what I have done 
successfully too, I think. Erom the 10th of June to the 25th, I 
pricked out some strong seedling plants for stocks. They had been 
planted out in a young plantation for underwood. The scions 
which I took from some of the best sorts, were the shoots of last 
year which had just done flowering and had not yet thrown out the 
shoot but still having a strong bud. These I grafted saddle-ways, 
tied in with bast, grafting as low down as possible, and then 
having drawn the mould (bog peat), just above the graft, covered 
each plant with a large pot, the hole of which had been slightly 
enlarged. The shoots have all elongated in the scions, and in 
some cases the leaves of the new shoot have expanded. The pots 
have in some cases been permanently removed, though in most 
they remain, the holes having been still more enlarged. It is 
probable this method may not give the new wood sufficient time 
to ripen well before winter, and it may be nothing new to others, 
though I never heard of it, as I am entirely a self-taught ex¬ 
perimentalist. 
Now, one growl more will satisfy me. It is directed at the cross- 
breeders, and at Mr. Beaton, the giant in that line ; and like most 
grumbling it may only exhibit the grumbler’s ignorance. 
What is the reason that while wc have hundreds of hardy 
cross-bred Rhododendrons, we have few, if any, hardy hybrid 
Ericas ? Why do not these gentlemen increase our hardy 
Varieties by crossing our native Heath with the Cape varieties ? 
Is there any practical difficulty which is not to be overcome ? It 
is a great pity if there be, for there are few more beautiful plants, 
and some of the Cape sorts are beautiful in the open ground, and 
in the rain too this very day. I will growl on this subject unless, 
or until, I get a satisfactory reason why I should not grumble 
about it. 
It has been raining ever since I began this, and the eclipse has 
been going on behind the clouds; but as one’s temper is not 
dependent on the clouds or rain, I feel myself in sufficiently 
good humour to say to “ Rustic Robin,” that I shall be happy 
to send him a head of seed of Anemone Pulsatilla, if my trans¬ 
mitting it to your office will insure his getting it safely. I know 
of no other mode of sending it.—D. C. M. 
[We will leave Messrs. Appleby and Beaton to answer these 
“ grumbles,” which we have no doubt they will; but in the mean¬ 
time we will give the recipe for grafting-wax, which we have 
found produces a satisfactory compound :—Two ozs. pitch, 2 ozs. 
resin, 1 oz. beeswax, )- oz. hog’s lard, J- oz. turpentine. Melt and 
mix them thoroughly. While fluid spread it upon thin brown 
paper, and this, when cold, is to be cut into slips three-quarters of 
an inch wide. These when breathed upon become limp and 
adhere to the scion and stock when wound round them. When 
sealing-wax is used in making grafting-wax, we find it best to 
melt the sealing-wax first, and to add the other ingredients after¬ 
wards.— Eds. C. G.] 
THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 
{Continued from page 245.) 
To the opinion of Mr. Knight as to the non-interbreeding of 
what are considered distinct genera and species we do not sub¬ 
scribe ; and we are sustained in thus differing from his opinion 
not only by Linnaeus, but by one of the most practised of modern 
hybridists, the late Dr. Herbert. After stating many facts, he 
thus concludes:—“ 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 struc¬ 
ture and appearance ? Let us be more humble in our assumptions 
of scientific knowledge, less bigoted and self-sufficient in our exa¬ 
mination of revealed truth, and let us give glory to the infinite 
and unfathomable power and wisdom of God. I call it self-suffi¬ 
cient to hold that ancient and obscure words can have no possible 
meaning but that which wo have been in the habit of attributing 
to them inconsiderately. It may be unacceptable to the botanist, 
who has been accustomed to labour in his closet over dry speci¬ 
mens, and thinks he can lay down precise rules for the separation 
of genera, and looks with complacency upon the scheme he has 
worked out, to find that the humblest gardener may be able to 
refute him, and to 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 feci his own connection 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.” 
Although -we entertain a strong opinion that many botanically 
widely-divided genera and species can interbreed and have inter¬ 
bred, producing new forms which in their turn have been classi¬ 
fied as new genera and new species, yet there is no doubt, as 
observed by Mr. Eish, that cross-breeding is most easily effected 
between distinct varieties of the same species. Such crosses are 
also the most valuable, because many of them, if kept distinct, will 
reproduce themselves true from seed—such, for instance, as our 
garden varieties ot the Cabbage. They will also cross with other 
varieties, which also will be reproductive. But this reproduction 
can be carried only to a certain point, that point being deter¬ 
mined by no known rules, but depending upon something consti¬ 
tutional in the nature of that tribe of plants. Thus we have found 
that Calceolarias long crossed would not produce seed, though 
apparently possessing perfect stamens and pistils ; neither would 
they do so when fecundated by another variety as high bred as 
themselves, though seeds would be produced when fecundated 
with the pollen from some of the coarser, more original, types of 
the species; but, of course, in that case, the progeny were de¬ 
fective in form and beauty. Even when the seed of the variety 
continues fertile, and they are not averse from joining issue with 
kindred varieties, still a deterioration of quality will in time ensue, 
similar to what takes when the breeding in-and-in system among 
animals is adopted. When, therefore, a superior dower—root, 
vegetable, fruit, or grain—is obtained, care should be taken not 
only to keep the variety true, but experiments should be made to 
cross it with some other dissimilar, and yet desirable variety, in 
the hope of obtaining a fresh production which may take the 
place of both its parents when they are beginning to wear out. 
Many experiments would tend to confirm the idea that manner 
and style of growth will be chiefly regulated by the characteristics 
that belong to the plant that possesses the pistil, while the flower 
and other parts of fructification will be influenced by the plant 
from whence the pollen of the stamens was taken. Thus, when 
the beautiful Fuchsia fulgens was introduced by the house of 
Lee, great hopes were entertained of what could be done by 
hybridising it with such old varieties as globosa. But as most 
of the attempts were made by selecting fulgens as the mother 
plant, the progeny were distinguished by large leaves and small 
flowers; whilst what was desirable was the large flowers of fulgens, 
and the small, compact foliage of globosa. Again, for example ; 
our earliest Peas—such as the Albert and the Frame —are hardy 
and stubby in their growth; but then no one will use them after 
the more tender, later, but large and sweet Peas of the various 
Marrowfats appear. To cross the Marrow with the early Pea 
would have the tendency to give a variety possessing the small 
flavourless fruit of the latter w r ith the tender and late habits of 
the former. By making the early Pea the mother plant, and the 
large high-flavoured Marrow the father, there is a likelihood of 
obtaining early Peas, hardy in their nature, large in size, and 
good in flavour. 
We will conclude this branch of our subject with a few prac¬ 
tical directions, furnished by Mr. Beaton, for conducting cross¬ 
breeding in the Gladioli and Geranium genera. “ 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 arc dilated, as botanists say, and the edges of 
these little openings are the real stigmas. The anthers which 
bear the pollen are always in threes in tills flower; each flower 
invariably having only three stamens, which hold up the anthers. 
When the pollen is ripe, the anthers burst from the top to the 
bottom, and there is a furrow down the centre of each opening, 
so that the anthers are each in two parts. The easiest way of 
