24 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
July  13,  1899. 
the  art  itself  is  Nature,”  and  man  is  merely  doing  consciously  precisely 
what  the  wind,  or  the  bee,  or  the  flies  have  done  unconsciously  for 
countless  centuries  of  time. 
So  we  see  that  up  to  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago  or  so  careful 
selection  and  good  culture  were  the  main  factors  in  the  improvement 
<>f  garden  plants.  Now  the  incalculable  influence  of  cross-fertilisation 
io  obtaining  variation,  and  isolation  and  self- fertilisation  in  the  fixing 
of  special  races  or  strains,  are  recognised  principles  in  our  everyday 
practice. 
When  Darwin,  after  collating  and  studying  the  results  obtained 
hv  gardeners  and  stock-keepers,  published  his  “  Origin  of  Species”  in 
1859,  a  new  era  dawned,  aud  we  now  know  that  cross-fertilisation  and 
hybridism  lie  at  the  bottom  of  all  onward  and  upward  progress  in 
garden  and  field  crops  of  all  kinds. 
Let  us  try  to  imagine  our  gardens  to-day  as  stripped  bare  ot  all 
hybrid  or  cross-bred  vegetation.  They  would  be  like  deserts — all  our 
finest  of  fruits,  vegetables,  and  a  large  proportion  of  our  most  showy 
and  beautiful  flowers  would  be  gone.  We  should  have  to  begin  over 
again  with  the  so-called  “  wild  species,”  many  of  which  are  also 
hybrids  from  Nature’s  workshop,  and  spend  another  half-century  or 
more  in  working  hard,  and  in  weary  waiting  for  the  results  that  are 
ours  to-day. 
Not  only  have  old  garden  races  or  strains  been  improved,  but  we 
have  new  races  evolved  in  our  own  time.  Some  of  us  are  not  too  old 
to  remember  the  first  hybrid  Orchids  and  Nepenthes  of  Dominy 
raised  at  Exeter.  The  dwarf- flowering  Cannas  of  Crozy,  the 
Nymphseas  of  Marliac,  the  tuberous-rooted  Begonia  of  Veitch, 
Streptocarpus,  the  berried  Pernettvas  of  Davis,  all  the  hybrid  and 
bigeneric  Orchids,  Nepenthes,  greenhouse  Rhododendra,  Chrys¬ 
anthemums,  Amaryllis,  Gladioli,  Irises,  and  last  but  not  least  the 
Delphiniums  and  the  French  Paeonies.  In  the  solitary  genus  of 
Narcissus  alone  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  Herbert,  Leeds, 
Backhouse,  Horsefield,  and  Englelieart  have  made  our  spring  gardens 
doubly  and  trebly  more  bright  and  interesting  by  their  beautiful 
creations. 
As  the  works  of  Darwin  turned  the  complicated  network  of  rills 
and  rivers  of  thought  into  one  clear  and  deep  and  straight  cut  channel, 
so  also  we  already  may  catch  glimpses  of  how  subtly  but  surely 
the  art  of  the  hybridist  is  influencing  current  events,  and  how 
gradually,  but  none  the  less  surely,  he  is  doing  the  work  of  the  plant 
collector  abroad  here  in  his  glass-roofed  and  coal-heated  laboratories 
at  home. 
In  a  word,  beautiful  new  species,  and  even  new  genera,  of  plants 
can  now  be  made  as  surely,  or  even  more  so,  than  they  can  be 
discovered  in  their  native  wilds.  The  Black  Raspberries,  raised 
between  the  Blackberry  and  the  Raspberry,  are  perhaps  more  curious 
than  profitable,  but  Mr.  L.  Burbank,  and  other  raisers  in  America  and 
^California,  have  added  many  serviceable  now  fruits  to  American 
gardens,  just  as  T.  A.  Knight  and  Messrs.  Rivers,  Laxton,  and  other 
raisers  did  long  ago  to  our  own. 
There  is  one  great  advantage  possessed  by  man  in  the  garden  over 
Nature — viz.,  Nature  isolates  her  species ;  but  in  our  gardens  and 
greenhouses  we  can  group  or  focus  them  together,  and  so  it  often 
becomes  possible  by  this  close  proximity  to  rear  hybrids  in  gardens 
that  would  be  impossible  in  a  state  of  nature.  Another  point  is  that 
in  the  garden  suitable  hybrids  are  carefully  preserved  and  cultivated ; 
and  so  also  in  nature,  it  is  only  the  most  suitable,  i.e.,  the  strongest  or 
most  adaptable,  that  live  on  and  exist  beside  the  so-called  wild  species. 
On  the  other  hand,  Nature,  by  isolating  her  species  for  long  periods, 
or  by  growing  them  under  very  diverse  conditions,  has  so  far  fixed 
some  of  them  that  the  hybridist  cannot  break  through  her  lines.  No 
hybrid  has  so  far,  I  believe,  been  raised  from  Richardia  sethiopica,  and 
though  amongst  Orchids  some  distinct  looking  genera,  like  Cattleya  and 
Sophronitis,  or  Cattleya  and  Brassavola,  yield  bigeners,  still  there  are 
some  species  of  the  same  genera  that  so  far  refuse  to  hybridise  with 
each  other. 
The  Persian  Cyclamen  does  not  appear  to  have  ever  been 
hybridised,  nor  can  one  well  imagine  what  augmentation  of  beauty, 
colour,  form,  or  variety  could  have  been  gained  that  careful  cross¬ 
fertilisation  and  rigid  selection  has  not  already  fecurod.  Why  the 
Cyclamen  has  varied  so  much,  and  such  popular  plants  as  Eucharis, 
Richardia,  and  Vallota  have  in  the  main  defied  the  cross-breeder,  is  a 
question  to  which  as  yet  there  seems  no  reply. 
Every  rule  may  have  an  exception,  and  so  has  Eucharis,  the 
hybrid  Urceocharis  Clibrani  (Eucharis  X  Urceolin*)  being  one  of  the 
most  distinct  and  beautiful  bigeners  ever  raised  (fig.  13,  page  39). 
To  the  same  category  belong  Phdageria  Yeitchi  (Philesia  x  Lapagerla) 
and  Orchid  bigeners  of  many  kinds.  Thjre  is  also  a  hybrid  between 
Yallota  ani  Gastronema. 
In  practical  cross-breeding  the  great  axiom,  “  Nature  does,  or  may 
do,  everything  sometimes ,”  should  be  ever  in  one’s  mind.  You  may 
fail  often  and  suceeed  at  last.  “  One  thing  is  sought  for  and  another 
is  found,”  says  Don  Quixote,  and  although  much  has  been  done 
already,  there  are  potentialities  innumerable  among  our  farm,  field, 
and  garden  p’ants  of  to-day,  and  no  earnest  and  patient  worker  in  this 
gentle  art  will  long  go  unrewarded. 
I  believe  M.  Barv  Latonr  Marliac  raised  seedling  Nymphasas  for 
ten  years  between  N.  odorata  rosea  and  N.  candidissima  before  his 
lovely  rosy  forms  appeared.  As  a  rule  flowers  and  vegetables  are  not 
nearly  so  long  in  showing  newly  acquired  characters,  but  those  who 
rear  seedling  fruit  trees  must  possess  patience  as  well  as  industry. 
I  believe  Mr.  Davie,  who  raised  the  many  lined  berried  Pernettyas 
at  Hillsborough,  in  Co.  Down,  Ireland,  had  to  wait  even  longer  than 
M.  Marliac  for  his  best  lesults,  and  so  it  is  and  may  be  in  other  cases, 
but  the  reward  is  sure. 
All  the  best  and  wisest  can  do  in  this  fascinating  game  with 
Nature  is  to  use  clear  judgment  in  the  selection  of  suitable  parents,  and 
to  cross  reciprocally — i.e.,  transfer  the  pollen  of  each  or  both  parents, 
if  bi-sexual,  to  the  receptive  stigmas  of  the  other.  You  apply  the 
pollen  under  the  most  congenial  conditions  possible,  and  Nature  does 
the  rest.  “If  she  will  she  will,  and  you  may  depend  on’t ;  but  if  esh 
won’t  she  won’t,  and  there’s  an  end  on’t.” 
Keep  on  crossing,  and  so  multiply  your  chances  ;  and  “  if  at  first 
you  don’t  succeed — try,  try,  and  try  again.”  Scientifically  hybridism 
and  cross-breeding  lie  at  the  root  of  evolution — i.e.,  adaptation — in 
the  garden,  and  all  our  modern  studies  of  plant  life  go  to  prove  that 
Nature  is  ever  anxious  to  make  plants  better  adapted  to  the  many 
and  varied  conditions  in  which  they  live;  and  the  gardener  not  only 
tries  for  this  result  also,  but  he  has  an  eye  on  those  that  afford  him 
the  most  acceptable  produce  as  well. 
[To  illustrate  Mr.  Burbidge’s  instructive  and  interesting  remarks, 
and  to  show  the  results  of  cross  fertilisation  and  hybridisation,  we  are 
giving  a  series  of  woodcuts,  under  each  of  which  is  given  an  expla¬ 
natory  inscription.  The  Begonia,  Calceolaria  (for  which  we  are  indebted 
to  Messrs.  J.  S.  Yirtue  &  Co.),  and  Cyclamen  must  demonstrate  the 
progress  that  has  been  made,  not  only  in  the  flowers  depicted,  but  also 
in  others  mentioned  by  our  talented  contributor.] 
THE  INTERNATIONAL  CONFERENCE  ON 
HYBRIDISATION. 
CHISWICK.— July  11th. 
Seeing  how  important  a  person  in  the  economy  of  Nature  the 
hybridiser  is,  aud  how  materially  the  exercise  of  his  art  has  helped  in 
the  evolution  of  the  gorgeous  flowers  and  luscious  fruits  which  are 
now  at  the  disposal  of  the  cultivator,  it  is  only  in  the  fitness  of  things 
that  our  chief  horticultural  society  should  seek  to  acknowledge  the 
value  of  the  work  thus  accomplished,  and  give  to  the  public  as  far  as 
possible  details  of  the  methods  that  have  revolutionised  modern 
horticulture.  A  Conference  at  Chiswick  is  sufficiently  rare  to 
provoke  interest  from  that  reason  alone,  but  with  such  a  subject  as 
hybridisation  and  cross-breeding  the  interest  becomes  tenfold.  The 
Society  did  wisely  in  sending  invitations  to  many  foreign  celebrities, 
thus  giving  to  the  gathering  a  true  international  status.  The  list  of 
papers  announced  for  the  first  day  covered  a  wide  range,  and  fine 
weather  alone  was  needed  to  complete  matters.  This,  it  is  satisfactory 
to  say,  prevailed,  for  it  was  a  typical  July  day,  and  the  only  grumbles 
heard  were  against  the  intense  heat. 
The  Conference  took  place  in  a  commodious  tent,  and  here,  when 
the  side  canvas  had  been  partially  removed,  the  conditions  of 
temperature  were  bearable,  and  even  pleasant,  which,  by  the  way, 
could  not  be  said  of  the  large  vinery,  wherein  the  unfortunate  exhibits 
were  stewing. 
Dr.  Masters  took  the  chair  at  2.30  p.m.,  and  despite  the  heat  there 
were  signs  of  plenty  of  animation  in  the  large  gathering,  waiting  for 
proceedings  to  commence. 
