VOL. LVI.— ^To. 3,134. 
^;ATUKDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1913. 
NOTE OF THE WEEK. 
Floral Transformation. 
If we could possibly resuscitate a few of 
our gai'den-loving great-grandfathers and 
convey them to some of our up-to-date 
flower shows, say at Chelsea or Holland 
Park, we are sure that one of their greatest 
surprises, and even puzzles, would be the 
chajiges effected in recent times in the 
flowers with which they w^ere familiar in 
the old days. Many of these are now so 
utterly transformed that they would be 
unrecognisable, while a good number of the 
exhibits are practically, so to speak, subse¬ 
quent creations, and hence entire novel¬ 
ties. Take as a type of the latter class the 
tube/ous begonias. In their time, if spe¬ 
cies with tuberous roots existed in this 
country at all, they possessed so little de¬ 
corative value as to be merely found in 
botanical collections, the noteworthy bego¬ 
nias then being those possessing foliar 
l>eauty of the Rex type, whose flowers were 
regarded as quite seoo-ndary adjuncts of 
little or no value. The progenitors of the 
present brilliant crowd of flowering bego- 
nia.v, which had blossoms of quite moderate 
size, were not knowm in British gardens. 
They were introduced later, and w^hen 
the possibility of hybridising distinct 
species w^as recognis^. As a result, 
course of time, larger and larger 
blMms, and brighter and more varied 
eolours appeared among the hybrid off¬ 
spring, until eventually we came to pos- 
^ the magnificent flowers rivalling even 
the rose in delicacy and variety of tints, 
more, in freedom 
0 blooming. Again, what w’ould they 
ink of our roses? True, unlike the bego¬ 
nias we have mentioned ^vere unknown, 
A tlrf ^ ®re fine roses—ramblers, stan- 
^rd, and bush—but there were none to 
latest and most bril- 
floriferous types of each kind 
decorate our gardens with such 
such brilliancy of colour that 
positively 
01177 /^' With the dahlia also another 
puzzle would present itself. This formed, 
a recognised and important 
and t a ^ times referred to, 
reached practically a state of 
and A- regularity of form 
of oolour. But what of the 
luost 
,Puerical ball of curved and. elnfselv- 
packf^d^'n'T' curved and. closely- 
the fiiii which fell into two classes, 
dahlia and the more or 
their pompon. These two had 
societies and their 
•’^ale exhibitions on a very large 
other flowers 
variation and further 
^hmax fV, 1 have reached their 
"^hen i ^^t:o the background. 
Mevirvo practically an accident, 
+},j„ ^ Joarez form found its way 
tionised once revohi- 
^uiupaef ^uhlia cult. In lien of the 
unceste^.^ “l^talled form of the time of 
I’s, the long attenuate-petalled 
or cactus type w^as encouraged and deve¬ 
loped, and in time prodiice<l as many bril¬ 
liant colours as the comjjact form had done, 
and the varieties formed a great and im¬ 
portant section. Encouraged by this capa¬ 
city of transformation, raisers, instead of 
rejecting as ineligibles or “rogues” all seed¬ 
lings of variant types, as they did in the 
old times, thus throwing away the chances 
w^hich Nature offered them, grew them on, 
wdth the result that now’adays we have the 
great loose, broad-petalled flowers of the 
pseony type, and the new' so-called collar¬ 
ette forms, with a circle of vari-coloiued 
slender florets in the centre, which, though 
still, as a rule, in the imperfect stage, pro¬ 
mise great things in the future. At a 
recent meeting of the Royal Horticultural 
Society a charming exhibit, showing the 
possibilities of the old-fashioned s<‘abious 
in the shape of a large number of charm¬ 
ing novelties, would have formed another 
surf)rise, and recently the old-fashioned 
snapdragon (antirrhinum) has made a 
marked move in the elirection of increased 
size, which promises miiefli to entitle it to 
rank, as someone recently .said, as “one 
of the flowers of the future.” Many other 
flowers might be cited in this same con¬ 
nection. The sweet pea may he cited as 
a special case, having been elevated from 
a simple ornament of a cottager’s garden 
to he the w'orthy objective of many socie¬ 
ties, and a “ cult ” in itself. The marvellous 
chrysanthemum might also be referred to, 
but Avould need much space. On the 
other hand, our assumed visitors w'oiild mi^ 
many of their old friends. M'here now is 
the balsam, which seems to have been in¬ 
capable of vicing with its many competi¬ 
tors in the varietal w^ay, and is now rarely 
seen P Our old friend the fuchsia still holds 
its ground to a certain extent, but seems 
to have proved its incapacity to go beyond 
certain lines, the very form of its flower 
appearing to preclude any such new breaks 
as we see in the begonias, dahlias, and 
others flowers which have come to the fore 
in recent years. In addition to the class 
of floral development of which w'e have re¬ 
ferred, there would also be the many new 
introductions with which onr forefathers 
would necessarily be unacquainted, but we 
have already said enough to demonstrate 
how' much more fortunate than they is the 
garden lover of these days as regards the 
immensely greater floral wealth at his dis¬ 
posal, due to the long-continii^ 
the selective cultivator, plus that of the 
traveller in far-distant countries who has, 
in many cases, furnished him wdth the raw 
material. __ 
ProDOsed Registration of 
Orchid Hybrids.— Now that so many 
orchid lovers are raising hybrids it becomes 
increasingly difficult to keep a clear record 
of the work done, so that duplicatioai ot 
nam^ may be avoided. The R.H.S. Orchid 
Committee finds this 
eulty and not seldom a hybrid granted an 
Award is found, by the next meeting, to 
have been wrongly named, tlm publication 
of the parentage in the Press having 
brought to light the fact that a hybrid of 
similar parentage already existcMl. The so¬ 
ciety’s recor<b» only coiicorn theiiist‘lv (»6 with 
plants certific^tiHl or granted Awards of 
Merit. To meet the difficulty referre<l to 
the following motion was iinaiiimonsly 
adopted by the Orchid ConimitU'e at Vin¬ 
cent Square, on S<‘ptemher 9, ami passi'^i 
as a recommendation to the Council of the 
Royal Horticultural Society : “ In view of 
the necessity of stK'uriiig the earliest }k>s- 
sihle recKirds of new’ hybrid.^, and to sup¬ 
plement the list of plants which have re¬ 
ceived awards, the ()rchid Committee re¬ 
commend that a new rw-ord, to l)e calknl 
the Hybrid Orchid Register, be establishe<i, 
and that orchid raisers and growers bo 
asktnl to bring their new plants which are 
flowering for the first time, even although 
they may not be sufficiently develoj)ed to 
enter for aw’ards, and to enter the name, 
parentage, and name of rais<'r (or exhibi¬ 
tor) of the plaint on a registration form, to 
go before the eommittee. After testing to 
prove that the name is in order, it sliall 
Ih' enter<Hl on the soeiety s Hybrid Orchid 
Register, and, once reeordtxl, the name 
must be re<'Ognise<l for all crosses of simi¬ 
lar parentage when sul)S4‘quoritIy shown, 
unless valid reaso-n can lx» produccnl to 
prevent it.” 
Purchase of a Seed Business. 
- AVe are informed that Messi^i. Sutton, of 
Reading, have piirehase<l from Messrs. J. 
Veitch and Sons, Lim., the scxxl business 
carried on at Chelsea for the past sixty 
years, and this department, w’ith the stocks 
of se^s and horticultural sundries, will be 
transferred to Messrs. Sutton and Sons as 
from October 1, 1913. Messrs. Sutton have 
also purchased from Messrs. Veitch and 
Sons, Lim., the principal portion of the 
seed grounds at Langley, near Slough, ad¬ 
joining the Great AVestern Railway, but 
Messrs. Veiteh's nursery trade will still be 
carried on for some time to come at Chel¬ 
sea, Langley, and Feltham, until Sir Harry 
Veitch retires altogether from business. 
Dahlia Trials at Duffryn —The 
extensive dahlia trials that are ^ing car¬ 
ried out by Reginald Cory, Esq., in his gar¬ 
dens at Duffryn are proving highly suc¬ 
cessful, and fully merit the interest the\ 
have created. The trials were instituti- 
by Mr. Cory for the purpose of determining, 
the merits of the "several sections for gar¬ 
den decoration, and include nearly one 
thousand varieties. Mr. Cory invited the 
Royal Horticultural Society and the Na¬ 
tional Dahlia Society to co-operate with 
him in selecting the varieties of special 
value for the garden, and a committee, con¬ 
sisting of equal numl)ers of the members of 
the two societies, was appointed to visit 
Duffryn. The members of the committee 
were Messrs. J. Green, H. J. Jones, J. B. 
Riding, A. Turner, J. T. AVest, and F. G. 
Treseder, and they devoted the whole of 
tw’o days (September 4 and 5) to the per¬ 
formance of their somewhat arduous hut 
exceedingly pleasant task, in examining the 
7,000 or 8,000 plants, and recording their 
decisions on the merits of the varieties. 
The majority of the plants are growing in 
