July  20,  1899. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
49 
inhospitable  forests  of  the  New  World.  Do  we  make  such  sacrifices 
ntwadays  ? 
The  hand  of  the  true  born  Britisher  is  much  in  evidence  on  the 
bark  of  a  fine  Beech  avenue.  Many  of  the  dates  have  grown  out ; 
we  found  one  early  in  the  eighteenth  century  date,  initials  and 
heart,  that  had  widened  and  grown  with  the  growth  of  the  tree — the 
carver’s  hands  are  dust — the  trees  are  as  young  as  ever,  and  birring  a 
tremendous  gale,  are  immovable.  Poor,  weak  man,  how  short  is  his 
span  of  life  !  Returning  after  an  absence  of  forty  years  to  find  only  a 
few  frail  old  women  and  tottering  men  that  have  any  remembrance  of 
u«  or  our  forebears.  A  stranger  would  ask,  Why  call  that  field 
“  Drover's  Dale where  is  the  connection  ?  Long,  long  ago,  when  the 
traffic  on  the  great  North  road  was  at  its  zenith,  the  patient  cattle  and 
tired  panting  sheep  were  turned  oft  the  main  road  and  rested  on  these 
common  lands,  getting  a  mouthful  of  grass  and  a  welcome  drink,  none 
interfering.  Now  you  hear  the  shriek  of  the  passing  train  and  see  the 
cattle  trucks ;  the  droves  have  disappeared  ;  the  dale  is  enclosed,  and 
only  the  old  name  recalls  the  past. 
We  are  close  on  the  old  forest,  and  where  tits  still  exist  they 
answer  to  the  description  found  in  the  first  chapters  of  “  Ivanhoe.”  Gurth 
is  gone,  Wamba  is  no  more,  their  places  are  taken  by  spruce  begaiteied 
keepers,  and  the  grunting  swine  have  given  way  to  the  glossy  pheasant 
who  is  as  greedy  of  Beech  mad  and  acorn  as  ever  were  they.  Is  the 
modern  breech-loader  more  effective  than  Robin’s  cloth  yard  shaft? 
I  do  not  think  he  would  approve  of  the  noise  and  smoke  and  the  army 
of  beaters.  The  arrow  that  carried  the  stag’s  death  warrant  sped  noise¬ 
lessly  on  its  errand,  and  was  always  effective,  but  the  sportsmen  were 
fewer,  and  they  killed  for  food,  not  for  the  mere  love  of  destruction. 
Could  they  return  they  would  find  the  “dapple  deer ”  hand-fed  and 
tended,  not  roaming  at  their  own  sweet  will  and  pleasure,  but  with 
curtailed  bounds,  unknown  crops  on  the  cleared  lands,  unknown 
dialect  in  the  peasant’s  mouths.  The  smoke  of  the  motor  car,  the 
flash  of  the  bicycle  wheel,  the  march  of  modern  innovation  on  every 
s:de,  and  finding  no  place  for  themselves,  they  would  softly  glide  away 
like  the  ghosts  that  they  are. — The  Missus. 
GILLENIA  TRIFOLIATA. 
GILLENIA  trifoliata,  of  whi  h  “  R.  J.  1).”  sends  a  specimen  for  identi¬ 
fication,  is  a  North  American  plant  included  in  the  great  Rose  family,  and 
usually  attains  aheightof  2  feet,  being  compact  in  habit,  and  flowering 
freely.  The  Raves  are  formed  of  three  leaflets,  as  the  name  implies,  each 
being  pointed  and  serrated  at  the  margin.  The  flowers  have  five  white 
linear  petals,  and  are  borne  in  loose  panicles  at  the  upper  part  of  the  stem 
It  frequents  damp  and  boggy  places  in  its  native  habitats,  but  it  is  not 
particular  under  cultivation,  almost  any  light  well-drained  soil  suiiing  it. 
The  plant  cannot  be  described  as  one  of  the  most  showy ;  but  the  slender¬ 
ness  of  the  stems  and  flowers  imparts  a  degree  of  elegance  to  it  that 
entitles  it  to  some  consideration. 
THE  INTERNATIONAL  CONFERENCE  ON 
HYBRIDISATION. 
THE  SECOND  DA  Y. 
The  Westminster  Town  Hall  was  chosen  as  the  venue  of  the 
second  day’s  proceedings.  The  change  was  necessitated  by  the  fact 
that  two  of  the  lectmes  down  on  the  schedule  were  to  be  illustrated 
with  lantern  slides,  and  of  course  a  tent  in  Chiswick  Gardens  was  not 
to  be  thought  of  for  these.  The  gathering  was  rather  smaller  than 
that  of  the  previous  day,  but  the  enthusiasm  showed  no  diminution, 
and  the  audience  could  lay  claim  to  being  really  seket. 
Professor  Sir  Michael  Foster  had  been  announced  to  take  the  chair, 
but  at  the  last  moment  was  prevented  by  illness  from  performing  that 
duty.  However,  a  capable  substitute  was  found  in  the  person  of  the 
Society’s  Professor  of  Botany,  the  Rev.  Geo.  Henslow,  who  took  his 
place  and  commenced  proceedings  shortly  before  2.30  P.M.  The  pre¬ 
liminaries  were  of  the  briefest,  and  the  meeting  was  soon  paying  close 
attention  to  Mr.  Herbert  J.  Webber  of  Washington,  the  special  envoy 
sent  by  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  who  dealt  with 
the  progress  of 
Plant  Hybridisation  in  the  United  States. 
The  lecture  was  profusely  illustrated  throughout,  and  the  interest 
in  it  never  flagged.  Seeing  that  the  work  had  only  been  commenced 
in  America  some  three  years  ago,  said  Mr.  Webber,  full  results  had 
not  yet  been  obtained.  The  experiments  taken  in  hand  had  been 
chiefly  in  connection  with  the  main  horticultural  and  agricultural 
products  of  the  States,  and  the  Orange  had  figured  in  one  of  the 
most  important  sets  of  these  experiments.  In  1894  and  1895  there 
had  been  a  destructive  “  freeze”  in  Florida,  and  the  Orange  crop  had 
been  ruined.  It  was  seen  that  a  hardier  variety  was  wanted,  so 
attention  had  been  turned  to  Citrus  trifoliata,  a  deciduous  Japanese 
species,  which,  although  bearing  comparatively  poor  fruit,  was  hardier 
and  later  in  flowering.  Numbers  of  crosses  had  been  effected  between 
C.  aurantium,  the  Sweet  Orange,  and  C.  trifoliata,  and  hvbrids  showing 
many  variations  bad  been  brought  into  existence.  Some  of  those 
which  were  intermediate  in  character  assumed  the  trifoliate  character 
of  the  foliage,  but  in  all  these  cases  the  central  leaflet  showed  a 
tendency  to  elongate.  One  curious  illustration  of  triplet  plants  coming 
from  the  same  seed  showing  great  diversity  of  form,  elicited  the 
explanation  from  the  lecturer  that  most  species  of  Citrus  were  poly- 
embryonic,  but  that  tte  plant  originating  from  the  embryo  proper  of 
the  egg  cell  alone  appeared  to  be  affected  by  the  cross,  and  assumed 
the  intermediate  character.  Other  plants  were,  however,  produced  by 
adventitious  embryo*,  and  these  were  simply  reproductions  of  the  sped 
parent  as  far  as  appearance  went.  The  same  thing  was  observed 
where  the  Tangerine  Orange  had  been  crossed  with  C.  trifoliata. 
Illustrations  of  reciprocal  crosses  were  shown  in  both  instances. 
It  had  been  found  that  true  hybrids  were  much  more  vigorous  in 
habit  than  either  of  the  parents,  and  this  fact  was  well  brought  out 
Fig.  15. — Gillenia  trifoliata. 
in  the  various  slides.  Attempts  were  being  made  to  cross  the 
Tangerine  and  the  common  Orange,  as  well  as  the  latter  and  the 
Bittersweet  Orange.  The  union  of  the  Bread  Fruit  and  the  Orange 
had  given  them  one  of  their  most  useful  fruits — the  Pumeloe. 
Pine  Apples,  too,  had  been  taken  in  hand  with  a  view  to  obtaining 
varieties  more  like  the  Smooth  Cayenne,  but  more  disease-resisting  and 
spineless.  He  had  about  1000  seedlings  developing,  and  there  was  a 
good  deal  of  variety  among  them. 
The  two  chief  forms  of  Cottpn  grown  in  the  States — viz.,  the 
Upland  and  the  Sea  Island,  had  been  under  exp^iment,  and  already 
definite  results  had  been  obtained  that  bade  fair  to  prove  of  consider¬ 
able  commercial  value.  Not  only  were  the  hybrids  more  vigorous  in 
habit,  but  the  staple  of  the  cotton  had  been  improved  by  the  influence 
of  the  Sea  Island  varitty,  whose  fibre  was  long  and  silky.  A  hat  was 
wanted  was  a  strain  of  Upland  Cotton  with  a  smooth  seed;  the  latter 
being  important  for  mechanical  reasons  in  preparation. 
Attempts  had  also  been  made  to  cross  the  cultivated  Maize  with  its 
wild  progenitors  in  Mexico ;  but,  s-o  far,  there  was  little  progress  to 
report. 
