650 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
variety, it set only eighteen capsules, and most of 
them contained very few good seeds, several from 
only one to three ; whereas an equally fine uncovered 
plant, growing close by, produced 105 fine capsules. 
The few capsules which are produced when insects 
are excluded are probably due to the curling up of 
the petals (as Fermond and Muller remark) as they 
wither, by which process pollen grains adhering to 
the papillae may be inserted into the cavity of the 
stigma. The moth Plusia is said to visit the flowers 
largely. Humble bees are common agents in 
fertilising these flowers ; but I have seen more than 
once a fly (Rhyngia rostrata) with the under side of 
its body, head, and legs dusted with the pollen of 
this plant, and having marked the flowers which 
they visited, found, after a few days, that they had 
all been fertilised. 
■' It is curious in this case, as in many others, how 
long the flowers may be watched without seeing one 
visited by an insect. During one summer I 
repeatedly watched some large clumps of Heartsease 
many times daily for a fortnight, before I saw a 
humble bee at work. During another summer I did 
the same, and then one day, as .well as on two 
succeeding days, I saw a dark-coloured humble bee 
visiting almost every flower in several clumps ; and 
after a few days almost all the flowers suddenly 
withered, and produced fine capsules. A certain 
state of the atmosphere seems to be necessary for 
the secretion of the nectar, and as soon as this occurs 
it is perceived by various insects, I presume by the 
odour emitted by the flowers, and these are immedi¬ 
ately visited.” 
I have made observations and carried on the work 
of fertilisation for three summers without the above 
information as a guide, as my copy of the book was 
absent on loan, and I read the paragraphs only a few 
weeks ago. There are certain points to which my 
experience compels me to take exception. The first 
is, that pollen grains inserted into the cavity of the 
stigma would be useless and without effect. There 
is a small, pale or whitish lip on the lower side of the 
stigma, blocking the entrance to the nectary, and the 
pollen must come in contact with the outer face of 
this to produce seeds. Again, it is my firm belief 
that no reliance can be placed upon the visits of any 
particular insect having fertilised any given flower 
unless it has been previously covered up and again 
covered after the observer has made his notes, and 
before he leaves it to wait the results. 
Amongst the insect visitors which I have watched 
upon Violas and Pansies are the Silver Y Moth 
(Plusia gamma) the Red Admiral (Vanessa Atalanta) 
the small white Cabbage Butterfly (Pieris Rapae) 
and large individuals of the humble bee (Bombus 
terrestris). All of these I believe are capable of 
fertilising the flowers in question. In Violas with 
long-tubed nectaries, only long-tongued insects are 
capable of reaching the nectar. This is particularly 
the case with Viola cornuta, V. lutea and 
their allies amongst the garden forms. All of 
the above fly by day, but the Silver Y Moth also 
flies in the dusk of the evening, and possibly after 
darkness has set in, for I have detected it when it 
was almost too dark to see the brown quick-flying 
moth. It visits Viola and Pansy flowers of all 
colours indiscriminately, and is so adroit and quick 
that I believe it is the most active agent in fertilis¬ 
ing and mixing up the strains higgledy-piggledy, 
good and bad, so that if it ensures an abundant har¬ 
vest of seed, it does not guarantee the quality. 
Darwin had not seen this moth when he wrote his 
communication, and only gave the name of the 
genus. The Silver Y Moth enjoys as wide a distri¬ 
bution as the Pansy and its various forms ; and, if 
any one insect might be named as the legitimate 
visitor, it is this one, and possibly others of the 
genus. The other insects I mentioned are less 
diligent and relatively awkward plunderers of the 
nectar, though we cannot overlook their influence. 
My own experiments in crossing and hybridising 
were undertaken with a view to determine whether it 
were possible by scientific means to raise varieties 
from large-flowered bedding Pansies with the true 
Viola habit, to obtain rayless from rayed varieties 
and settle other cognate questions. To do this I 
found on the results of the first summer’s experiments 
that it is absolutely necessary to exclude all insects 
whatever. If you do not cover up the unexpanded 
bud, you must be the first visitor after the bloom is 
fully expanded, and after pollination you must protect 
the flower till it withers.' This can be done simply by 
gumming a piece of paper over the entrance to the 
nectary, or by any other means you may devise. 
Mark the flower by some coloured thread, and make 
a record of it all on paper before leaving the plant. 
When the seed pods attain full size you must tie them 
up in thin gauze or something of that kind, otherwise 
the seeds may disperse on their own account when 
your back is turned, on fine days. Without this care 
all your labour will be in vain, and insects will mix 
up anything or everything together in the Pansy line. 
Others, as well as I, have discovered that the results 
of well planned crosses have resulted in a heap of 
rubbish, and that 
The best-laid schemes o’ mice and men 
Gang aft a-gley, 
And lea’e us nought but grief and pain, 
For promised joy. 
I busied myself nearly a whole day tying up the 
seed capsules in cotton wool, went to business next 
day, and upon returning found that the sparrows had 
pulled off and carried away almost the whole of the 
wool. Thus another day’s labour was lost. 
After many experiments I find that several 
varieties are perfectly barren with their own or other 
pollen. Rarely a pod or two are produced but con¬ 
tain no seeds. Amongst these I may name Duchess 
of Fife, Goldfinch, Columbine, Blue Cloud and 
possibly others. Ardwell Gem seldom seeds in my 
experience, but with care I have little difficulty in 
making it set and ripen good seeds. Insects cannot 
make barren varieties fertile. 
In the space and time at my command I can only 
mention a few of the crosses or hybrids I have made 
and the results. When Viola cornuta is used with 
one of the Pansy tribe (V. tricolor), the laws of 
botany allow us to call the resulting progeny a 
hybrid, because two species are concerned in it. 
When two varieties of one species are used, it is 
termed a cross. In 1892 I crossed the large, pale 
yellow Ardwell Gem with the miniature Viola named 
Old Gold. All the seedlings had small yellow flowers 
and one was rayless and the upper half of it white. 
All this was due to the pollen parent, which reduced 
the size of Ardwell Gem, removed the rays from it, 
and introduced white. Seedlings from any of the 
rayless Violas, in my experience, readily revert to 
white. Blue or purple lies dormant, as it were, in 
Ardwell Gem, as is proved by the sports from it, and 
last year the seedling I have just mentioned sported 
and became blotched with blue, showing how un¬ 
stable and unreliable the first year’s flowers of 
Pansies and Violas are owing to their complicated 
parentage. 
During 1893 I effected several hybrids and many 
crosses. Starting with the old V. cornuta Perfec¬ 
tion I pollinated it with True Blue, and raised many 
seedlings with the Viola habit, and large though less 
circular flowers than True Blue, and of various 
shades of blue and purple, and in one case almost 
identical with the colour of the pollen parent. This 
single generation shows what can be done from the 
small flowers of V. cornuta Perfection. Whether 
I effected a hybrid or not I am unable to say, as no 
one knows the parentage of True Blue, but it seems 
more nearly related to the Pansy than to V. cornuta. 
In another case I had even more remarkable results 
by using V. cornuta Perfection as the seed parent, 
crossing it with the creamy-white Countess of Hope- 
toun. One lot of seedlings produced several shades 
of blue, and others were white but rayed. They 
had the Viola habit of the seed parent but the large 
flowers of Countess of Hopetoun. Another lot of 
seedlings from the same cross were all white, and 
some had as well-shaped flowers as Countess of 
Hopetoun, though those of the seed parent were 
small, starry and blue. 
I used the miniature Violetta with white flowers 
as the seed parent. When I employed the pollen 
of the orange-crimson Cardinal upon it, the result 
was dusky yellow flowers of the size and form of the 
pollen parent. In other cases I crossed Violetta 
with Cornuta Perfection, producing well-shaped 
flowers of various shades of blue or white tinted 
with blue, but spoiling them by introducing the 
vulgar rays. Violetta crossed with the large plum- 
purple Mrs. C. Turner produced a mixed lot varying 
in size from the seed parent up to that of the large 
pollen bearer. The colours ranged from white to a 
pretty decidedly deep blue, and very beautiful on 
first expansion, though one parent was white and 
the other purple. In all these cases you must have 
noted the preponderating influence of the pollen 
parent in most of the characters of the progeny.— F. 
April 27, 1895. 
ORCHID NOTES AND GLEANINGS, 
By John Fraser, F.L.S., Kew. 
Dendrobiums from Falkland Park.—From Mr. 
A. Wright, gardener to John McMeekin, Esq., 
Falkland Park, South Norwood Hill, comes a box of 
Dendrobium blooms, which in most cases were 
notable for their great size, which is ample evidence 
of good cultural treatment. Dendrobium nobile 
No. 1 was particularly conspicuous in this respect, 
having long sepals and broad petals warmly coloured 
at the upper ends. D. nobile No. 3 showed a close, 
approach to D. n. nobilius in richness of colouring. 
D. nobile No. 4 had a short and broad heart-shaped 
lip, giving the whole a meritorious appearance. The 
very light or almost white sepals and petals of D. n. 
elegans delicata gave it a graceful and elegant 
appearance that could not fail to be noticeable in a 
collection. D. nobile No. 6 was slightly darker, but 
the segments were all much broader. Amongst the 
blooms was a fine hybrid raised between D. 
Ainsworthii, itself a hybrid, and D. nobile nobilius, 
with richly coloured segments. D. Wardianum was 
to the fore, as usual, with its huge waxy-looking 
flowers. A variety of this species bearing small 
blooms was notable for the primrose-blue tips to the 
segments, fading to rose tinted with violet. D. 
Wardianum candidum Falkland Park var. was pure 
white, with the exception of the orange blotch on 
the lip and two small maroon spots. D. lituifiorum 
Freemanii is often so richly coloured, as in this 
instance, that it would be highly prized were it not 
that it is often put in the shade by the large-flowered 
and highly-coloured forms of D. nobile. 
-■*$«.- 
TIE PLANT NOISES. 
The Stove. 
The plants in this department will now be in full 
vigour of growth, and as a natural result will call for 
more room. Attention must therefore be paid to the 
necessary thinning out, if nice shapely specimens are 
required ; for it is useless to expect these if they are 
crowded together almost pot-thick. It is far better 
to have a limited number of plants and these in good 
condition than to attempt to grow a larger quantity- 
in a too restricted space. In most establishments s 
greater or less amount of plants are required for in- 
door decoration, and it is usually the stove that is 
called upon to supply the requisite material. In 
many cases, therefore, the drain upon the resources 
of the stove is exceedingly great, especially when 
the demand is a heavy one, and the under-glass 
space all too small—a state of things which many a 
gardener has to lament. 
In any case no plants should be left in the darkened 
rooms of the mansion for too long, until a great part 
of their colour has been lost, and the majority of 
their leaves hopelessly crippled for the season ; for 
foliage plants, particularly, are usually very slow 
growing subjects, and do not recover from such a 
decided check. As soon, therefore, as plants in 
stands or vases show signs of suffering they must be 
removed for a few days to a warm pit, where plenty 
of heat and [moisture can be given them, to assist 1 
them in recouping themselves, afterwards keeping- 
them rather cooler and admitting more air, thus 
fortifying them against the injurious influences 
which a brief stay in rooms or staircases invariably 
exercise upon them. Many of the Aroids or subjects 
of enfeebled constitution that were plunged in warm 
close pits at the commencement of spring to facilitate 
growth will now have progressed sufficiently to warrant 
removal to the larger stove where they will serve to 
fill up any gaps that may have been occasioned by 
the removal of plants for purposes of indoor 
decoration. 
Pangratiums. —These are among the most beauti¬ 
ful of our flowering plants requiring a stove 
temperature. Although in most gardens the name 
of Pancratium is still common, most of them should 
be referred to the genus Hymenocallis, to which 
they rightfully belong. Thus' the correct name of 
the plant known in gardens as Pancratium fragrans 
is really Hymenocallis ovata. But no matter by 
what name it is known it is an exceedingly beautiful 
plant, and its umbels of deliciously fragrant flowers 
are always acceptable. Other species which are 
well worthy a place in every stove are H. speciosa 
and H. macrostephana. All of them need copious 
