Ltober 31, 1903. 
[m Gardening World 
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Views and Reviews. 
Genesis of New Plant Forms. 
From the early times of cultivation we 
presume that cultivator's have always been 
ready to avail themselves of any new and 
better form than that, already existing. It 
would always be the desire of the cultivator 
to get the best return from his labours, or 
the greatest amount of produce from any 
given piece of land. At the same time, it 
would be a great inducement to cultivate a 
new form with larger, more juicy and appei- 
tising fruits 1 . Taking the case of Apples and 
Pears, we might say that their improvement 
lias been going on for centuries, the relative 
slowness of the operation being due to the 
fact that the cultivators had but an imperfect 
idea of their origin, or how they might help 1 
artificially in the production of fruits with 
desirable qualities. 
Turning to China, and Japan, we, have 
evidence of much more ancient cultivation, 
and the existence of garden forms that were 
great improvements upon the wild originals,. 
We presume that the Orientals were like the 
Europeans in adopting new forms which 
turned up by accident as it were. Their 
progress could not have been otherwise than 
slow, just as in the case, of European, culti¬ 
vators. These improvements took place in 
Chrysanthemums, China Asters, Camellias, 
Paoonies, Roses, and ether subjects, which 
Kerner considered were the results of cross¬ 
ing in the majority of oases. That author* 
says that “ we may assume with certainty 
that the practice of dusting flowers of onei 
species with the, pollen of another first, came 
into use in those countries.’ He also says 
that we have evidence in Europe, that this 
form of raising new plant, forms was known, 
to the Rose-growers of the Roman Empire. 
If that was the case, we may be surprised 
that the progress took so many centuries to 
develop 1 to, the extent, to, which it is cai i ied 
on at the present day. We should also* have 
expected that the gardeners of the olden, 
* " The Natural History 
Blackie and Son, Ltd., 
Vol. ji-, page 555 - 
of Plants." Kernel- and Oliver. 
London, Glasgow and Dublin. 
times, from the days, of the Romans at least 
down to our time, should have practised more 
scientific methods than the evidence would 
seem to indicate. We have reason to believe, 
however, that many of them earned on these 
practices solely for their own benefit, and 
kept their procedure a, secret. That being 
the case, the secret would in many instances 
have become lost through the death of the 
cultivator or gardener who' did not bequeath 
the secret to those working under him. 
The crossing of flowers and the raising of 
new forms was carried on more extensively 
when the fashion arose for the production of 
new Tulips and Auriculas, which in some 1 in¬ 
stances created a, greater amount of excite¬ 
ment and gambling amongst their advocates 
than any other flower or vegetable production 
has since then, Carnations, Orchids, and 
Potato® notwithstanding. The same writer 
considers that 10.000 new forms of plants 
have been raised during the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury. These were attributed to hybrids 
alone. Even with the vast numbers of plants 
now available in gardens, the above number 
might well be considered excessive if we 
imagine that, all such hybrids are still in cul¬ 
tivation. On the contrary, many of them 
were favourites only for a short, time and 
were then neglected or left to their own re¬ 
sources, after which they soon disappeared, 
being unable to, hold their own in competi¬ 
tion with the more ordinary forms of -plants, 
which, in most cases, seed more freely and 
are able to take care of tliemseW^. T.ar^e 
numbers; of them have been produced as the 
result . of experiments on the part, cf 
botanist® and other scientific men, and we 
presume these also would, after a time, be 
allowed to lapse or left, to- their own resources, 
if not actually thrown away. 
At the present time Roses are receiving an 
immense amount of attention, practically in 
all parts of the civilised world where the 
temperature is suitable for the cultivation of 
Roses. Kerner assumes that for many years 
they have been produced at. the rate of sixty 
a year, but in 1889 this number rose to 115. 
He cites the case of a Rose-grower near 
Vienna who grew nearly 1,200 different, kinds 
of Rosies in his garden, and yet he in no way 
possessed all the forms which had been 
raised. That grower estimated the number 
