724 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
July. 15, 1899. 
with the view of recording experiments or 
observations; and of extending a know¬ 
ledge of any given subject. In any case, 
to speak of hybrids and hybridisation, 
when it is evident that the speaker can only 
mean cross-bred plants, is greatly to mini¬ 
mise the scientific value of the statements 
made or the writings committed to paper. 
When once the distinction has plainly been 
impressed upon the minds of gardeners and 
cultivators generally, we should expect that 
they would only be eager to adhere to the 
more definite method of expressing them¬ 
selves. Science is certainly largely 
indebted to the practical man for informa¬ 
tion concerning improved garden forms of 
plants ; and although those well versed in 
the science of botany and plant lore gener¬ 
ally are not easily misled by the use of 
vague terms on the part of cultivators, yet 
the general public is more easily carried 
away by such. Correct information so far 
as is definitely known is just as easy to 
impart as erroneous, and the aim should 
always be to instruct. 
f arden Primulas. —From a garden point 
of view the genus Primula is of lead¬ 
ing importance, and vast improvements 
have been made in several of the species ; 
but when one comes to analyse the 
improved forms it soon becomes evident 
that hybridisation has bad little to do with 
existing improvements. Hybrid Primulas 
or hybrid Primroses are of frequent 
occurrence in gardening literature, but 
whether Primula vulgaris and its improved 
forms or Polyanthuses are meant, we fail to 
see where the evidence of hybridisation 
comes in. P. vulgaris, P. veris and P. 
elatior are certainly very closely allied, and 
hybrids between any two of them certainly 
do occur even in a wild state, but an exam¬ 
ination of the fine cultivated forms does 
not reveal hybridity. A Primrose is simply 
a Primrose, as it was to Peter Bell in 
Wordsworth’s account of him. A Poly¬ 
anthus bears all the fascies of a Primrose, 
with the common footstalk of the flowers 
elongated. It has nothing of the cupped 
flower seen in the Cowslip nor the peculiar 
form of leaf abruptly narrowed into the 
footstalk; nor has it the open or naked 
throat of the Oxlip. We have often seen 
Primroses, especially those belonging to the 
garden form known as P. altaica, with the 
primary or common footstalk elongated, 
and that is the status we accord to the 
garden Polyanthus. From a florist’s point 
of view the cupped flower of the Cowslip 
or the open throat of the Oxlip would be 
defects to be got rid of at once, so that 
there is no encouragement for hybridisation 
here. Improvements are effected by the 
cross-breeding of the allied strains. Close 
inbreeding is particularly a feature of the 
gold-laced Polyanthus. 
In the case of Auriculas it is question¬ 
able whether the reputed hybridisation is 
anything more than legendary. Even if it 
could be proved that P. pubescens and one 
or two others had been concerned in the 
origin of the garden race, it could easily be 
shown that the reputed parents are so 
closely allied that they might be regarded 
as mere varieties. Nevertheless, we think 
it remains to be proved whether any 
hybridisation of the Auricula has ever been 
effected and retained by the modern race. 
Long cultivation, cross-breeding and 
selection of the varieties of an originally 
variable type, rendered more so by man’s 
handiwork, must be held responsible for 
most, if not all, that can be seen in a 
modern Auricula. The green, gray and 
white-edged varieties are vastly different 
from anything known in a wild state. The 
Chinese Primula (P. sinensis) is a standing 
testimony to the skill of the craft, but no 
evidence of hybridity exists in the modern 
race, notwithstanding any statement to the 
contrary. Cross-breeding and selection 
are responsible for the improvements that 
have been effected. Nor is it at all certain 
how long the Chinese had been cultivating 
the species before it was introduced to this 
country. The wild form was unknown to 
them until it was re-discovered quite 
recently. All attempts to cross the culti¬ 
vated race with the wild type or vice versa 
have hitherto failed, so wide has the gulf 
been made by cultivation apparently. 
Since the comparatively recent introduction 
of P. obconica repeated and determined 
attempts have been made by different 
cultivators to raise hybrids between it and 
P. sinensis. Several have been confident 
of their success, exhibiting in public what 
they considered the hybrid progeny. We 
have also been called in to witness the new 
creations, but nothing convincing has ever 
come before our vision. A slightly un¬ 
typical form of P. obconica was all that 
has ever given rise to a short-lived illusion. 
The two species (P. sinensis and P. obconica) 
are morphologically so distinct, that any¬ 
thing in the nature of a real hybrid could 
hardly fail to be self-evident, whether of 
natural or artificial origin. Still another 
group of garden Primulas may be noted, 
namely, the forms representing P. Sieboldi 
and P. cortusoides. The former is often 
considered a fine variety of the latter. For 
garden purposes they are certainly distinct, 
and many improved forms now exist ; but 
we doubt much whether the two forms are 
really blended. Those that certainly owe 
their origin to P. cortusoides might only be 
improvements of the wild type. The many 
grand forms of P. Sieboldi might all have 
been raised by seed-sowing and selection of 
the improved forms of P. Sieboldi pure 
and simple. Cultivators and raisers are 
mostly all so bent upon getting size, that 
the smaller forms owing their existence to 
P. cortusoides, soon get weeded out or 
neglected ; and that would apply to various 
other species having much disparity in the 
size of their flowers. 
The Cyclamen belongs to the same 
natural order as Primula ; and the modern 
race of highly improved forms has been 
developed entirely from C. latifolium 
(generally spoken of as C. persicum and C. 
p. giganteum). Cultivators occasionally 
speak of hybrid Cyclamens in relation to 
this race ; but that gives rise to erroneous 
impressions which it should be the duty of 
all reliable and authoritative writers to 
guard against. Some interesting work has 
been done in crossing the original wild type 
with the garden race and vice versa, but that 
must not be regarded as hybridisation 
seeing that the wild and cultivated races 
belong to the same species. It is very 
doubtful whether C. latifolium has ever 
been hybridised with any of the other 
species. In any case the results would be 
plants having flowers very much inferior to 
the best strains now in cultivation ; and 
unless the cultivator is enthusiastic and will 
carry on the work for years, nothing suffi¬ 
ciently attractive for the general public 
would arise by hybridisation. C. latifolium 
is too much improved for getting anything 
fine from it as the first cross from 
another species. 
(To be continued.) 
■ »«— - 
Cricket Matches.—The match recently played by 
the Hurst & Son C.C. v. Beaumont, at Waltham¬ 
stow, was drawn in favour of Hurst & Son, with r67 
runs for one wicket. Portch made 52, Squires 64, 
and Main 15. The Beaumont C.C. made 108 runs for 
five wickets. The match Hurst & Son v. Aberdeen 
was played at Watbamstow, and won by Aberdeen 
by 6 runs. Hurst & Son made 42 runs ; Aberdeen 
48. 
Mr. Leonard Barron, the Editor of American Gar¬ 
dening, is at present a visitor, being over on a flying 
visit to the old country. He is detained a week 
longer than he intended, owing to an accident and 
injury to the ship by which he came. 
Banquet to Foreign Visitors.—As we go to press the 
Royal Horticultural Society is entertaining the 
foreign visitors to the International Conference on 
Hybridisation, the banquet being held at the Hotel 
Metropole, on the evening of the 12th inst., the 
second and concluding day of the Conference. 
Weather in London.—Since -Wednesday, July 5th, 
it would seem as though every day surpassed in 
heat that of its forerunner. On Tuesday morning 
(early) rain fell for some time but did not continue. 
During the-day the temperature rose till it reached 
86 ° in the shade aod 133° in the sun. 
Nearly all Forest trees contain tannic acid in their 
bark, but the Oak excels all other trees in the 
quantity which it yields. The Spruce, the Larch, 
the Willow, and the Beech also contain no small 
quantities. Tannic acid is used for the tanning of 
leather. The tannic acid and the albumen of the 
skins unite to form a non-decomposable and water- 
resisting compound.— Farmers' Gazette. 
Royalty at Rosherville.—Rosherville Gardens were 
the scene of a lete which was opened on Wednesday, 
July 5th, by the Duchess of Albany, in connection 
with the Gravesend Hospital. Her Royal Highness 
was received by the Mayor of Gravesend (Mr. Aider- 
man J. Russell), the Town Council, and many of the 
district authorities. H.R.H. visited the institution 
before proceeding to the gardens. The opening cere¬ 
mony took place on the Grand Terrace, and at its 
conclusion the Duchess was escorted to the lower 
portion of the grounds, where fancy stalls and other 
attractions had been arranged. 
Gardening Appointments.—We lately announced 
the appointment of Mr. D. Watt to the Viceregal 
Gardens, Phoenix Park, Dublin. Mr. George Sayers 
has been installed in the place which Mr. Watt left, 
namely, at the Chief Secretary’s Lodge, Phoenix 
Park. Mr. Sayers has been for the past seven years 
gardener to Mrs. Goodbody, Obelisk Park, Blackrock, 
Co. Dublin. He is a very successful grower of fruits 
and plants. Mr. Samuel Brain, late head gardener 
to Major Borroughs, Gilltown, Co. Kildare, has been 
appointed land-steward and gardener to John 
Hatchell, Esq., D.L., Fortfield House, Terenure, Co. 
Dublin. Mr. Davis, late foreman in the noted 
gardens of J. Bannatyne, Esq., D.L., Summerville, 
Co. Limerick, has been appointed as Mr. Sayers, 
successor at Obelisk Park, Blackrock. 
Sporangia of the Myxies.—Sir Edward Fry and 
Miss Agnes Fry, in the July issue of Knowledge, 
continue their fascinating story of the myxies." Look 
at the vast variety of schemes by which, in Orchids, 
insects are made to solve the problem of getting the 
pollen-masses out of the boxes into which they have 
been stowed away, and then of pollinating with them 
the stigmatic surface. Or look again at the vast 
variety of the forms of the peristomes in mosses (all 
varieties of the same elements and of the same 
fundamental idea), and the various ways in which 
they operate under the action of moisture. Or take 
again the insectivorous plants. Here the problem 
which Nature seems to have set herself is this— 
given a leaf, how to catch insects? And this 
problem has been solved by the use of different 
constituent parts of a leaf in almost as many ways 
as there are genera of insectivorous plants. . . . 
It is a beautiful sight to see through a microscope 
the opening of a sporangium of a myxie under the 
warmth of the sun. We have watched it in the 
Trichia ]allax\ sometimes there appears a small hole 
in the membrane towards the top, which enlarges 
into a chasm ; sometimes the whole upper part 
seems lifted or pushed up. Then the closely-packed 
spores begin to start out—one after the other—- 
falling at varying distances ; then the whole surface 
of the mass of spores and elaters begins gently to 
heave and move, and the elaters sway about like the 
arms of a polype. These actions are, we presume, 
due partly to the elasticity of the hairs seeking to 
expand in every direction, and partly to the unequal 
thickness of the parts of the elaters and the 
consequently unequal action of the heat on the 
elaters themselves. They curl and twist because 
they are unequally expanded.” 
