purpureo-auratus; all our yellow to primulinus and 
purpureo-auratus and all our lavender and violet 
to papilio. Yet all of our modern glads contain 
the blood of their ancestry. Thus height of plant, 
any color, may be traced to oppositiflorus; large 
number of buds also to oppositiflorus; grace and 
stretchiness of flowerhead to primulinus; size of 
bloom ,to saundersii and cruentus; the much de- 
sired roundness of flower principally to cruentus. 
Each of the species has contributed some valuable 
quality to almost any modern glad you might 
name. 
From the four corners of the earth have come 
the contributions to our modern gladiolus of 
today. The following is a brief tabulation: 
1. Lemoine—France—much of the early work in 
gladiolus breeding—noted for blotched varie- 
ties. 
Kelway—England—strength and vigor. 
Pfitzer—Germany—“‘blue’”’ glads. 
Errey—Australia—size. 
Kundred & Prestgard—vU. S. A.—ruffledness. 
Palmer—Canada—the variety Picardy, the 
progenitor of many of our new modern glads. 
mo fP Ww Ww 
In our great land of surpluses and plenty, the 
ieee lo ee Ce A An le OrG 23 
ou 
plant breeders of our beloved United States are 
now in the lead. 
Picardy, introduced in 1931, has parented as 
many fine flowers in glads as Man O’War has 
done in race horses. It was the salmon Picardy 
that threw the national spotlight of garden in- 
terest on the gladiolus. It was Picardy that help- 
ed make the gladiolus our national flower. 
The first gladiolus were brought to America 
before the Revolutionary War, but it wasn’t until 
after the Civil War that interest grew and hybrid- 
izing was begun. At the Centennial Exposition 
in Philadelphia in 1877 over 400 varieties of glad- 
iolus were exhibited. Present day gladiolus are 
the result of the selection of a very few from 
countless millions of seedlings, probably. One 
would scarcely believe that our present varieties 
came from such insignificant plants. Viewing a 
grand-champion bloom at a flower show one 
would believe the evolution has reached its zenith, 
but modern hybridizers feel they have just begun. 
One stands in awe to think of what the future 
has in store for us, what new colors, as a real 
blue for instance; or what new forms, some like 
cups, some like saucers, some double like a rose, 
some like butterflies, or some like orchids. Mind 
probably hasn’t even conceived of the gladiolus 
of the future! 

