Amaryllidaceae: Preceded by an Attempt to Arrange the Monocotyledonous Orders, and Followed by a Treatise on Cross-bred Vegetables, and Supplement

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James Ridgway, 1837 - Amaryllidaceae - 429 pages
 

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Page 344 - To the cultivators of ornamental plants, the facility of raising hybrid varieties affords an endless source of interest and amusement. He sees in the several species of each genus that he possesses the materials with which he must work, and he considers in what manner he can blend them to the best advantage, looking to the several gifts in which each excels, whether of hardiness to endure our seasons, of brilliancy in its colours, of delicacy in its markings, of fragrance, or stature, or profusion...
Page 369 - I am inclined to think that I have derived "advantage from impregnating the flower from which I wished " to obtain seed with pollen from another individual of the same " variety, or at least from another flower, rather than with its
Page 369 - I am inclined to think that I have derived advantage from impregnating the flower, from which I wished to obtain seed, with pollen from another individual of the same variety, or at least from another flower, rather than with its own ; and as races of animals are known to degenerate, if they are perpetuated by the union of near kindred, it seems not unlikely that vigour may be given also to any race of vegetables by introducing a cross, though of the same kind, and especially from an individual grown...
Page 154 - ... frosts that may ensue, though they will endure a good deal ; and their habit is to flower after the leaf has acquired its growth before they go to rest. The Phycellas have been found difficult to cultivate, because they have been often set in peat, though they grow naturally in a sandy or strong soil on a dry rocky substratum, and proper rest has not been allowed them. They should be planted in light soil well drained, and be left dry from the moment their leaves show a disposition to wither,...
Page 363 - Yorkshire winter, may afford the means of elevating a conspicuous brandling scape from an herbaceous stemless plant, and produce some very desirable crosses with species that have a more ornamental flower. One very singular monstrosity has shewn itself, though not permanently, yet frequently amongst the mules from C. plantaginea ; the flower has assumed a form totally different from its natural shape, being like a bag or purse two inches long, widest in the middle, and gradually tapering almost to...
Page 363 - ... followed by G. gandavensis var. citrinus, a citron yellow flower having a red stripe down the middle of each of the three lower segments. Dean Herbert, who at this time had had long experience in hybridizing gladioli, doubted the parentage of G. gandavensis as given by M. Van Houtte. He said (1837:365): "I have not succeeded in obtaining any cross, on the correctness of which I can depend, by admixture with Gladiolus psittacinus (Nathalensis), and I do not believe that it will breed with any...
Page 340 - Subsequent experiments have confirmed this view to such a degree as to make it almost certain that the fertility of the hybrid, or mixed offspring, depends more upon the constitutional than the closer botanical affinities of the parents. The most striking and unanswerable proof of this fact was afforded by the genus Crinum, which is spread round the whole belt of the globe, within the tropics and...
Page 333 - German}-, by Koelreuter, who published reports of his proceedings in the Acts of the Petersburgh Academy between fifty and sixty years ago. Lycium, Digitalis, Nicotiana, Datura, and Lobelia were the chief plants with which he worked successfully, and as I have found nothing in his reports, to the best of my...
Page 334 - President adopted in his writings a principle or dogma, which seemed to be then much relied upon by botanists, that the production of a fertile cross was proof direct that the two parents were of the same species, and he assumed as a consequence, that a sterile offspring was nearly conclusive evidence that they were of different species...
Page 370 - ... access, unless it shall be found to arise from greater or less constitutional conformity. The genus Calceolaria affords greater facility than most others, because its stigma is nearly obsolete before the pollen of the flower is ready, and, in the earliest stage of the bud, it is easy to lift up the corolla, and take out the anthers, which are then comparatively large and exposed, and the stigma may be fertilized at that early period, when it is defended by the covering of the corolla from any...

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