June 13, 1891. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
651 
inch in diameter, and varying in colour from a yellowish 
white to yellow and violet and purple. This is as it is 
found in Nature. But the florist is not content to leave 
things as he finds them ; consequently as early as the 
beginning of the present century the Pansy under culti¬ 
vation had attained the very respectable dimensions of 
something like 1 in. in diameter. Fifty years ago 
from 1^ in. to 1^ in. may be taken as its average size, 
and about 40 years ago blooms of 1^ in. to 2 ins. 
in diameter were considered first-class flowers. Up till 
this date the florists’ Pansy had, so to speak, stuck to 
its colours—yellow grounds, white grounds, and seifs 
and the florist’s ideal lay in strictly defined markings, 
a circular form, smooth surface, and good weight of 
petal. The show Pansy was perfect. Then the floral 
world got a shock. Somebody introduced a race of so- 
called Belgian Pansies with flowers nearly 2tj- ins. in 
diameter, wild and uncontrollable in their colours, with 
thin substance and ragged edges, but giants neverthe¬ 
less. Wise old florists shook their heads and said 
“Rubbish !” One or two wiser still said nothing, but 
set themselves to work. But the new-comers would 
not be reduced to order, would not adapt themselves to 
the colours and fashions of other well-bred and respect¬ 
able Pansies. Then the wise men reconsidered them¬ 
selves, and, like Mahomet of old, went to the mountain. 
Why not adopt new standards and set up a new class 
of Pansies ? The thing was done, and • 
The Fancy Pansy 
stood revealed ; a new creation of wealth and beauty. 
Soon the thin papery petals and ragged edges disappear, 
the colours come under control—rich crimsons and 
purples, ruby, rose, and maroons, and a host of other 
unlooked-for shades become the order of the day, and 
flowers of from 21) ins. to 3 ins. diameter are looked 
upon as good examples. Up till six or eight years ago 
the maximum size attained may be held as 3 ins. ; nor 
yet is the course exhausted, for to-day in such flowers 
as “ Donald Morrison” and “ David Renny ” 3^ins. to 
3£ ins. is no uncommon record, and perhaps 4-inch 
blooms are in the near future. 
If there is anything Scotch under the sun, it is the 
fancy Pansy. Belgian Pansies may have been, and may 
be cultivated in England and elsewhere as “fancies,” 
but they are not fancies as the Scotch know them. 
The true fancies of to-day are a Scotch creation, which 
for the last 40 years Scotch florists have been 
evidently cultivating and improving. An English 
horticultural weekly lately headed a paragraph “ The 
revival of the Pansy.” In Scotland we must first have 
a decay before a revival is possible. Quite forty years 
ago Mr. John Downie, of Edinburgh, unfurled the 
Scottish flag with “Dandy Dinmont” as his colours. 
Since then Grieve, Goodal, Dobbie, and other old time 
generals have kept up the honour of their country. 
To-day we have Irvine, Campbell, and Lister. 
Invincible still ! Scotland yet !— D. S., in The 
Dundee Evening Telegraph. 
--=>> 55 <-*- 
PEDIGREE BREEDING OF 
PLANTS. 
In a letter published in The Manchester Guardian, in 
support of the appeal to the County Council of the 
Manchester Royal Botanical and Horticultural Society 
for a share of the grant for technical education, the 
writer—the Rev. F. D. Horner—says :— 
“ Science and art are as truly applicable to horti¬ 
culture and agriculture as the more inanimate industries 
of manufacture, and could be applied with a like unity 
of design, which under proper organisation and 
guidance would result in improvements comparatively 
as great in field and garden produce as we have lived to 
see in products of the loom and mill. The best 
machinery cannot turn out good work from bad raw 
material, and to improve the one and leave the other to 
chance or neglected quality is poor industrial farming. 
Apparently, the raw material may be the weak point in 
vegetable tissues for textile manufactures, and Mr. E. M. 
James’s illustration of the loss caused by an inferior 
cotton fibre is probably only one of many instances. 
In this all will suffer who have to deal with it, but it 
is of little use to have perfect machinery while the root 
of the evil lies in natural causes—within the seed itself, 
from which has sprung the inferior raw material. The 
grower should have trust in his seed, and he must know 
how to get and keep it pure. I have no claim to write 
on this matter, except that for over thirty years I have 
been engaged and deeply interested in both the cross¬ 
fertilisation and the hybridisation (the two things are 
not the same) of horticultural and agricultural plants. 
“As a country parson, I have had as much pleasure in 
talking to Yorkshire farmers on seed corn and other 
crops, as to Yorkshire gardeners or brother florists on 
our mutual loves and hobbies. I do but barely touch 
on cross-fertilisation of our best old florist flowers, such 
as the Auricula, the gold-laced Polyanthus, Tulip, or 
Carnation and Picotee, lest it lack in general interest, 
for, as Mr. Barlow observes, * seed thus obtained, can¬ 
not be bought. ’ Few care for the classical types of these 
lovely flowers, and the seed and stock of them are in 
few hands. But I may give the golden rule of action. 
The parentage of each seed pod is carefully thought out, 
and its fertilisation as completely guarded as the 
breeding of a true bull-dog or a ‘Derby crack.’ The 
very presence of an inferior variety is an element of 
weakness, because the fertilising agent — the pollen 
grains on the anthers of a flower—is as a very fine 
powder, and is transferable by the action of either 
insects or the wind, which is a more subtle agent than 
the bee. I have found the total exclusion of inferior 
varieties from a collection of classical florist flowers so 
marked in its effects as to be highly desirable for the 
best results. The object is to unite in a seedling the 
strong points that may be separately shared by two 
good varieties, and to call into expression some powers 
yet hidden within the possibilities of the flower. I 
prefer to have good form and substance on the side of 
the seed-bearing parent. It is a strong transmissible 
maternal trait, though at times confused with dis¬ 
appointing exceptions. Many of our most carefully 
laid shots are ‘outside whites,’ or total misses; but 
sometimes seeds that were pod-fellows will give a 
succession of goodly hits. The art needs but following 
up to fix these high qualities more and more ; but no 
beauties look their best on a bad form and substance. 
Experience leads me to see that seedlings from the 
best seedlings have a greater bent towards excellence 
than all their fathers had. 
“In agricultural seeds (cereals) I have had a few 
interesting experiences showing how, like the spoiled 
cotton instanced by Mr. James, one variety will, as a 
neighbouring crop, influence another ; and how by 
intent many interesting cross-bred varieties may be 
produced. Perhaps my widest experience in the former 
way has been watching the successive harvests where 
the beardless or ‘ awnless ’ Barley has been grown 
where fields of the common bearded Barley have been 
near. It has seemed difficult to keep it in its full 
peculiar habit. When newly shot, and until the ears 
are full, the ‘ awns ’ in the true beardless Barley are 
persistent, but they fall off as the grain hardens. But 
grown between fields of the bearded kind, I have 
noticed a distinct cross effected ; so that eventually the 
beard of that which should be beardless has only more 
or less been shed. Straw of this beardless Barley 
seems stiffer, and perhaps longer therefore, than that 
of the old kind ; but in severe gales, when ripe, the 
beardless may have, perhaps, more corn knocked out 
than the bearded variety, in which the * awns ’ may 
act somewhat as an ‘automatic brake,’ moderating 
the impact of ear with ear. This cross-fertilisation of 
the Barleys may point a moral. It tends to show 
that however one farmer may wish and strive to keep 
his seed, his efforts may be interfered with by a 
neighbour who is careless or ignorant on the point. 
There needs a true spirit of co-operation in the matter, 
and each man to learn the principle of these things, 
and the value of the best, because the most scientific, 
principles. If it is true science, Nature will work to 
it. From the example of a cotton-seed, it can amount 
to the robbery of a neighbour and the ruin of a district 
to ignorantly or carelessly grow a variety that spoils 
the quality of a product. Without being the same 
thing, it is a near parallel to the man who sowed tares 
among the wheat, and went his way. I have had 
interesting results from growing black Barley and 
crossing it directly with our white. There is a six- 
rowed black Barley and a two-rowed black, and several 
varieties of each. Some are short, thick corn, and 
some have longer and thinner grains. One variety of 
two-rowed black has a bearded chaff as well as bearded 
grain. The six-rowed makes a noble plant, much 
better than any of our Barleys. The two-rowed black 
has a short and brittle straw, and the leaves and upper 
joints turn nearly black also when the plant is ripe. 
From a series of crosses with white Barley I got a 
large variety of grey, bluish, and slate-coloured Barleys. 
I kept the seed-bearing ears closely guarded during 
their bloom under glass covers, and removed the male 
flowers before they had expanded. In like manner I 
have crossed our black and white Oats—short white with 
Black Tartarian. The result appeared in ears of inter¬ 
mediate habit, with corn of different brown-paper shades. 
“The most interesting crosses I have made in the 
cereal grasses have been among varieties of Indian 
corn. Botanically the plant is most conveniently 
constituted for cross-fertilisation. Its habit is 
‘ moncecious’ — i.e., the floral sexes are both produced on 
the same plant, — but they dwell apart in totally different 
floral envelopes or ears. The anthers or male flowers 
are contained in the ‘ tassel ’ on the top of the plant, 
while the pistils of the seed-bearing ear (the ‘ silk’) 
emerge from the young ear, enveloped in many sheaths, 
that are produced from the strongest part of the stem 
on alternate sides. To effect a cross it is only necessary 
to secure the pollen in paper bags tied over the top 
inflorescence, and scatter it upon the silken threads. 
Of course, when this cross-bred seed in its turn produces 
ripe ears they will show a blend of the colours and 
shape of the parents. But it is curious that there is 
also a nearer evidence, an effect still more direct. The 
cross will show at least in colour upon the actual seed 
formed by it. I cannot recall any other instance of so 
immediate an effect. Each pistil of the seed-bearing 
ear is attached to its embryo grain quite umbilically, 
and so near is the connection with the husk or ‘ bran > 
of the seed corn, in which alone the colour of the 
grain exists, that the pollen from a differently coloured 
variety has the curious power of causing the very seed 
it has helped to form to show the modified colour of 
its male parent upon its skin. I have obtained true- 
bred white and yellow corn from American and crossed 
plants from it with red or variegated varieties, and 
seen marks of the cross on the first seed ripened here. 
I should say that I have depended on what I have 
heard, that in America the purity of some varieties of 
corn is a particular matter, and all my mixtures of 
cross colours and cross shapes are probably but ‘ foul 
corn’ in the esteem of strict Transatlantic growers. 
“However, in all this I would but impress the im¬ 
portance of having horticulture and agriculture recog¬ 
nised duly in any scheme of technical education. 
Whether we seek new features in flowers or vegetables, 
or greater steadfastness in good old qualities, it is 
essential that a man employed in this division of labour 
should be learned in the science of his vocation, not 
alone for his own sake, but for the good of the whole 
community also. In this matter I heartily endorse 
the drift of your own words, sir, that the Manchester 
Botanical Society may fairly claim a share of the grant 
for technical education, and the words of my friend 
Mr. Samuel Barlow that ‘ there is no body in the 
kingdom more likely, if well supported, to carry out 
this pedigree idea to great practical results than the 
Manchester Royal Botanic Societj^.’ ” 
-- 
Jjrxrm f]p 
#f[ jlmttt£ + 
—— 
Evolution and Reversion in the Olive 
Family. —In twelve genera of the Oleinere, and which 
in the aggregate include 137 species, the leaves are 
entire. Of the remaining six genera some of them 
consist of species with normally entire leaves, such as 
Syringa and Forsythia, while some of the species or 
varieties, or individuals of them, occasionally bear 
pinnatifid leaves. Jasminum contains the largest 
number of species—namely, 120, belonging to any one 
genus, and some of them have entire leaves, others 
have three leaflets, and a third set have pinnate 
leaves. The common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) may 
be given as an instance of the greatest amount of 
evolution in the order, as far as the leaves are con¬ 
cerned. The variety F. e. heterophylla has mostly 
simple, ovate leaves, more rarely do they consist of 
three leaflets. This may be looked upon as a case of 
reversion to an ancestral form. The leaves of F. rufa 
are extremely variable even on the same tree. Some 
of them are ovate or lanceolate and serrate, others 
lobed, while a third type consist of three distinct 
leaflets. Here is evidently a tendency to reversion, as 
the compound leaves are those on the smaller and 
weaker shoots. An opposite tendency to this may be 
observed in Forsythia suspensa, where the leaves on 
strong, vigorous shoots are often deeply three-parted. 
A similar case may sometimes be observed in Syringa 
persica alba, where some of the leaves have a deep 
lateral lobe on each side at the base. In the variety 
S. p. laciniata most of the leaves are pinnatifid, with a 
varying number of lateral lobes ; the rest are simple, as 
in the type. In Forsythia and Syringa, therefore, we 
have an evident tendency to a more highly evolved 
condition with regard to the leaves, and in Fraxinus 
there is occasionally a tendency the other way.— J, F, 
