July 22, 1899. 
THK GARDENING WORLD 
(45 
plants. In about ten days the larvae or grubs are 
hatched and at once bore into the stem which begins 
to decompose. Now we need say no more unless 
it be that generation follows generation and that 
danger is always present. The very best prevent¬ 
ive—for there is practically no remedy once the 
grubs are inside the stems—is to have tough plants 
to put out in the first instance. Thus the value of 
timely thinning and transplantings is proved. Give 
them good soil to go ahead in. Sprinkle soot and 
lime around the plants to keep off the flies, or give 
sooty waterings if the grubs are already present. 
Keep the surface soil around the plants moist, and 
see that "collar” is firm in the soil. By such at¬ 
tention we think you will find that though the apex 
and a goodly part of the root may die away, small 
roots will emerge from the soil level, and by this 
time the plants will be tough and the grubs will have 
become fully winged flies. Give each plant then a 
firming with the heel, and water them regularly. 
Gas-lime should be applied to the land in autumn or 
spring, and all infected old stumps must be burned. 
Vegetable mold and sometimes farmyard manure 
harbour eggs. 
violacea exceeds that of either parent, and the plant 
is remarkably vigorous, which is a distinct gain from 
a garden point of view. An interesting point is that 
the progeny takes the form of the male parent, 
whereas the belief formerly prevailed that the pollen 
parent only influenced the colour. In this case the 
colour is distinctly intermediate between those of the 
parents, being a soft violet, faintly netted with white 
lines. The lip is deep violet-purple. Now, the 
colour of P. violacea is soft violet, whereas P. ludde- 
manniana is banded with violet on the white ground 
of sepals and petals. The photo shows the latter on 
the right, P. violacea on the left, and P. ludde- 
violacea in the middle of the background of the 
illustration. 
- I *- 
CONFERENCE ON HYBRIDISATION. 
The following comprises the substance of the 
remarks made by Dr. Masters on opening the busi¬ 
ness of the conference at Chiswick on the nth 
inst.:— 
Our first duty, and a very pleasant one it is, is to 
to bring to bear on our art not only the " resources 
of civilisation,” to a degree impossible to our prede 
cessors, but we can avail ourselves also of the teach¬ 
ings of science, and endeavour to apply them for the 
benefit of practical gardening. We are mere 
infants in this matter at present, and we can only 
dimly perceive the enormous strides that gardening 
will make when more fully guided and directed by 
scientific investigations. One object of this confer¬ 
ence is to show that cultural excellence by itself will 
not secure progress, and to forward this progress by 
discussing the subject of cross-breeding and hybrid¬ 
isation in all their degrees, alike in their practical 
and in their scientific aspects. 
To appreciate the importance of cross breeding 
and hybridisation we have only to look round our 
gardens and our exhibition-tents, or to scan the cata¬ 
logues of our nurserymen. Selection has done and 
is doing much for the improvement of our plants, 
but it is cross-breeding which has furnished us with 
the materials for selection. 
A few years ago by the expression " new plants,” 
we meant plants newly introduced from other coun¬ 
tries, but, with the possible exception of Orchids, the 
Phalaenopsis Ludde-violacea. 
PHALAENOPSIS LUDDE-VIOLACEA. 
Many hybrids of interest were exhibited at the con¬ 
ference on hybridisation organised by the Royal 
Horticultural Society at Chiswick on the nth inst., 
but too much work was crowded into that short and 
sub-tropical day so that it was impossible to note 
everything, much less to go into detail concerning the 
merits or demerits of the great number of subjects 
provided for the instruction and delectation of the 
visitors. 
In the group of hybrids and bigeneric hybrids set up 
by Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, Ltd., Chelsea, 
Phalaenopsis ludde-violacea was made more interest¬ 
ing by the presence of its parents, both of which 
were in flower. The accompanying illustration was 
prepared from a photograph taken at Chiswick, and 
shows the parents and progeny at a glance. The 
parents were P. violacea (female) and P. ludde- 
manniana (male), and the name of the progeny has 
been made up from those of the parents, as may be 
seen. 
Many hybrids amongst Orchids are produced, 
which are a distinct deterioration upon the originals; 
but in this case we have a decided improvement in 
every respect. The size of the flowers of P. ludde- 
welcome our foreign guests, our friends from across 
the sea as I prefer to call them, to thank them for 
their presence here to-day, and to express a hope 
that their sojourn among us may be both agreeable 
and profitable. At the same time, we regret that 
some, such as Dr. Focke, the historian of hybridisa¬ 
tion, has not been able to preside over this meeting, 
as we had hoped he might have done. Nor can we 
at such a meeting do other than express our abiding 
regret at the loss, though at an advanced age, of the 
great hybridiser, Charles Naudin. 
Our next duty is to thank the council of the Royal 
Horticultural Society for this opportunity of meeting 
once more in these time-honoured gardens to discuss 
what, I venture to think, is one of the, if not the 
most, important subject in modern progressive ex¬ 
perimental horticulture. I use the words "progres¬ 
sive” and experimental, because I believe that the 
future of horticulture depends very greatly on well 
directed experiment. 
So far as the details of practical cultivation are 
concerned, we are not so much in advance of our 
forefathers, We have infinitely greater advantages, 
and we have made use of them, but if they had had 
them they would have done the same. We are able 
number of rew plant? of this description is now 
relatively few. 
The " new plants ” of the present day, like the 
Roses, the Chrysanthemums, the Fuchsias, and so 
many others, are the products of the gardeners’ 
skill. From Peaches to Potatos, from Peas to 
Plums, from Strawberries to Savoys, the work of the 
cross-breeder is seen improving the quality and the 
quantity of our products, adapting them to different 
climates and conditions, hastening their production 
in spring, prolonging their duration in autumn.* 
Surely in these matters we have out-distanced our 
ancestors. 
But let us not forget that they showed us the way. 
I do not propose to dilate on the share which 
Camerarius, Millington, Grew, Morland, and others, 
at the close of the seventeenth century had in de¬ 
finitely establishing the fact of sexuality in plants, 
but I do wish to emphasise the fact that it was by 
experiment, not by speculation, nor even by observ¬ 
ation, that the fact was proved, and I do wish to 
show that our English gardeners and experimenters 
* See some interesting observations of MacFarlane on tbe 
period of flowering in hybrids als intermediate between that 
of the parents, Gardeners’ Chronicle, June zoih, 1891, and on 
the structure of hybrids, May 3rd, 1890. 
