February 11, 1899. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
878 
NOVELTIES 
RAISED AT 
WINDSOR and OSBORNE. 
It is Messrs. CARTERS’ privilege to 
offer the following new and choice 
productions to the notice of gardeners 
and private cultivators. 
BRITISH QUEEN MELON. 
Raised and named by Mr. Owen Thomas, Supt. of 
the Royal Gardens, Windsor. Awarded the First- 
Class Certificate R.H.S. Pronounced by the Com¬ 
mittee to be not only the very best white-flesh 
melon ever submitted, but the richest flavoured of 
any colour. Awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal 
Caledonian Society in association with other fruit 
exhibited by H.M. The Queen. 
In sealed packets, price 2 6 and 3 6 each, post free. 
ROYAL OSBORNE CUCUMBER. 
A valuable cross between the Rockford and an im¬ 
proved type of Telegraph, raised and named by Mr. 
George Nobbs, Head Gardener to H.M. the Queen 
at Osborne. In our opinion it is one of the best all 
the year round varieties introduced in recent years. 
In sealed packets, price 2/6 & 3/6 each, post free. 
ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUES, POST FREE. 
CARTERS, 
Ube Queen’s Seebsmen. 
Only Address — 
237, 238 & 97, HlCtf HOLBORN, LONDON. 
“ Gardening is the purest of human pleasures, and the greatest 
refreshment to the spirit of man.”— Bacon. 
Iflft Iflo# 
Edited by J. FRASER, F.L.S. 
SATURDAY , FEB. nth, 1899. 
NEXT WEEK'S ENGAGEMENTS. 
Tuesday, February 14th.—Royal Horticultural Society: 
meeting of committees at 12 noon ; Annual General Meeting 
at 3 p.m. 
Friday, February 17th.—Annual General Meeting of the 
/Royal Gardeners' Orphan Fund at Anderton’s Hotel, 
Fleet Street, E.C.; chair to be taken at 3 o’clock. 
f ONFERENCE ON HYBRIDISATION AND 
Cross-breeding. —The nth and 12th 
of July next should be busy and very interest¬ 
ing days for the Royal Horticultural Society, 
the Fellows, and others who may attend the 
projected conference on those days. The 
subject is the hybridisation and cross¬ 
breeding of plants; and we note that 
scientific and practical men have been 
invited to read papers on various branches 
of a world-wide interesting subject, both 
from a utilitarian and a scientific point of 
view. The first part of the conference is to 
be held on the afternoon of the nth July in 
the gardens at Chiswick, when five impor¬ 
tant papers will be read, or taken as read, 
according to circumstances. The con¬ 
ference will be continued and concluded on 
the afternoon of the following day in the 
offices at 117, Victoria Street, when eight 
papers on as many different subjects, all 
WEBBS’ 
NEW CARROTS. 
WEBBS’ MARKET FAVOURITE. 
A remarkably handsome variety, indispensable for 
early use, and a splendid keeper. Of exceedingly 
rapid growth. Produces very ihick, beautifully- 
shaped roots of rich colour and fine quality. 
Is. per Ounce, post free. 
WEBBS’ PRIZEWINNER. 
Of bright red colour, very long, and of most 
excellent quality. It is also specially suitable for 
exhibition purposes, owing to its large size and 
symmetrical shape. 
Is. per Ounce, post free. 
See WEBBS’ SPRING CATALOGUE, post free Is. 
WEBBS’, Wordsley, Stourbridge. 
THE BEST 
BROCCOLI 
FOR WINTER USE. 
SUTTON’S 
SUPERB EARLY WHITE. 
The heads are of the purest white, 
and equal in all respects to those of 
Sutton’s Snow-white. One valuable 
characteristic of our new selection 
is that the heads remain solid for 
three or four weeks. 
“ Superb Early White has a beautiful head, per¬ 
fect in shape, snowy white, and it is hardier than 
many I have grown. In 1896 it stood the frost 
uninjured. This is in a measure owing to its 
dwarf sturdy habit and abundance of thick leafage 
which covers the flower. — G. Wythes.”— The 
Garden. 
Per ounce, 2s., post free. 
Sutton’sSeeds 
_ GE NUINE ONLY FROM SUTTPN& SONS,READING. / 
dealing with hybridisation and cross-breed¬ 
ing are set down to be read. A ninth head¬ 
ing includes hybrid or cross-bred Irises, 
Begonias, Chrysanthemums, Cinerarias, 
Rhododendrons, Clematis, Fuchsias, Violas, 
Gladiolus, Narcissi. Fourteen gentlemen 
have been invited to supply short papers on 
these subjects. It is quite evident that 
discussion will be limited if all of these papers 
are to be read, even although the confer¬ 
ence is to sit from 2.15 p.m., till c p.m. on 
each day. The prominent horticulturists 
and scientific men on the various subjects 
have been drawn from Britain, the Con¬ 
tinent, and America, ‘so that a mass of 
information should be got together on the 
subject that cannot fail to be of scientific 
and practical import to whom it may con¬ 
cern, in proportion to the use that is made 
of the facts recorded. No such mass of 
information derived from original research 
and observation was at the command of 
Darwin when thinking out, working out, and 
compiling his books on the various horti¬ 
cultural subjects with which he dealt. The 
value of the whole will depend upon the 
general conclusions which can be drawn 
from the aggregate of the details ; but this 
requires a master mind, and the conclusions 
are not likely to be fully realised for years 
to come. 
By one author the subject is to be dealt 
with as a method of scientific observation. 
Many imported plants have been described 
as supposed natural hybrids, particularly 
Orchids, and when artificial hybrids have 
given rise to progeny closely identical with 
the wild plants, we regard the supposed 
hybrid origin to have been proved. Some 
cases are already on record, and it is more 
than probable that others will follow. The 
successes and failures of hybridisation is 
the theme of another paper; and in this 
line we think of the small amount of success 
scored by hybridists in the genus Primula, 
with the exception of a few trifling instances, 
such as the Auricula section on the one 
hand, and the Primrose, Cowslip and Oxlip 
on the other. These two groups, closely 
alliedamongst themselves, raise the question 
of what is a species. No one has ever been 
able to define it, much less to agree upon 
the point, though many have agreed to 
differ. We do - not find fault with authors 
on these two aspects of the question ; but 
we seriously object to the loose use of the 
terms “hybridisation” and “crossbreed¬ 
ing ” by various writers who do not draw a 
distinct line between the one and the other, 
even in cases where authorities generally 
are perfectly agreed as to the specific or 
varietal status of the subjects under dis¬ 
cussion. Scientific men may never whoily 
be able to agree as to what is a species or 
what a variety, but surely the time has 
arrived when a plebiscite of the botanists 
over the whole civilised world should be 
taken as to which plants are to be accorded 
specific rank, and which to be regarded as 
varieties. This would go a long way 
towards settling the perennial question of 
nomenclature, and the universal fixity of 
names, in which the rising generations of 
botanists and horticulturists may be 
educated. The continual alteration of 
names is a scandal to science and the 
laughing stock of the educated and illiterate 
amateur alike. 
The stability of hybrids is a large ques 
tion, whatever the information vouchsafed 
at the conference may be. Either the 
natural hybrids that occur in this country 
must have existed previous to the glacial 
epoch, or the sime hybrids are still being 
effected in this country ; for many, if not all 
of them which occur in Britain, also exist 
on the Continent, where they have been 
described before our botanists took the 
subject in hand. If the former hypothesis 
is the correct one, then some natural 
