File:The American florist - a weekly journal for the trade (1900) (18133961892).jpg

Title: The American florist : a weekly journal for the trade
Identifier: americanfloristw20amer (find matches)
Year: 1885 (1880s)
Authors: American Florists Company
Subjects: Floriculture; Florists
Publisher: Chicago : American Florist Company
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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1044 The American Florist. Mar. J/, with maroon-brown dots on a white throat; James H. Veitch, with stately spikes furnished with large, erect, well expanded flowers of a clear red color with a straw yellow throat and purple spots. To complete the collection the exhibitors staged some new varieties of the highest value, but not yet in the trade, such as Perle Rose (Syn. Louis Dalle), of a lovely pink, with large crimson blotches on the lower segments; No. 633 salmon with large, bright red blotches; Lieutendant Meynier (Nanceianus),cherry, the throat covered with white and purple dots; Francisque Sarcey, (Lemoinei), a round flower of a dark salmon shade with large, almost black spots; Jules Toussaint (Lemoinei), pale violet with plum-colored blotches; No. 672, bright rose, with white blotches and purple dots, Solfatare, (Lemoinei), clear yellow with brown spots; Apotheose (Nanceianus), an immense bloom, magenta, spotted with white and striped with purple; Ocean (Lemoinei), a beautiful violet color with brown and white spots; No. 744, bright scarlet and large flowers; Lumineux (Lemoinei), sulphur yellow with two scarlet blotches on the lower segments, etc. Some Thoughts on Hybridizing. The production of high class seed is by no means the simple process that many imagine it. It means much more than simply to plant and harvest. Especially is this true of the attempt to create new varieties by combining the qualities of existing sorts. In this case many factors enter into the problem and help to determine the result, and the grower is really forced to widen his work, becom- ing a breeder as well. Most persons would suppose that the intrinsic worth of any given seed would be determined entirely by the merit of the parent stock. Yet, unless taken with some qualification, nothing could be more misleading than this partial state-
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NtW VARIETIES OF GLADIOLUS LEMOINEI. ment of a general truth. A better under- standing of the laws of heredity, the transmission of traits and characteristics, and the various ancestral influences co-existent in the present, will lead to a more conditional statement. The know- ledge gained by long experience, the skill and patience bom of a real enthusiasm for the work, following the teachings of nature rather than antagonizing them, will often accomplish more with a second rate foundation stock than care- less, indifferent and slipshod methods can ever attain with a far better equip- ment. Experience has frequently shown that, starting from the same point in animal, vegetable or floral lines of work, in the he nds of one t here will be deteriora- tion, rapid and sure, while with another, progress and improvement will be the rule; in fact there are so many difficulties in the way, whether caused by lack of skill on the one side or by the constant tendency to degenerate on the other, that it is as much as the ordinary grower can do to preserve the standard attained by others, after it has been handed over to him, without being able to make any advancement. It is somewhat as in the formation of a mathematical series, or the building of a block tower. Only the right sequence will advance the work and secure what has already been done, while a false move is the ruin of all and necessitates a new beginning. The ability to discern between the right and the wrong courses may be gained by experience, perhaps, but it seems largely intuitive and is one of the things that mark the difference between the workman and the bungler. Sometimes a very, very few years of intelligent manipulation of a parent stock and its progeny will result in the production of a really new form of the greatest value, which is in no sense of the word a "sport," or freak of nature, but rather the certain result of natural tendencies directed by intelligent purpose, as truly the creation of the grower as if hewn out of the marble with mallet and chisel. Unknown possibilities are hidden in the law of heredity. They are there for any and all who will seek to gain them and now and then some one learns to fit the golden key into the closed lock, and opens the door to hitherto unknown beauty and joy. I believe such results are entirely outside the domain of chance and fairly within that of law, as truly as the results that follow the operation of any other of nature's laws. A problem in arithmetic is certain to "come out right," as we used to say in school-boy days, if the work be correctly performed, but one false step, one mistake, one wrong figure, and the dunce block is not far away. Perhaps it is too much to use this as an illustration, for I must admit that we may never be able to understand the laws of heredity and transmission as we do those of the exact scienci s, yet a comparison is obvious. The cases may not be identical but they are at least analogous. The principles of breeding in the animal kingdom, at least, are fairly well under- stood. Of necessity those that obtain in the vegetable and floral world differ somewhat. The most noticeable of these differences can readily be traced to the fact that while but one mode of propaga- tion is the rule in the animal world, in most genera of the plant world there are several. Some of these which do not require the combined influence of separate paren- tal factors, as they are outside the sphere of sexuality, seem also free from much that is included in the code of heredity.

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