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Show 364 FLOWERS. CHAP. X. with woolly berries, and others with recurved thorns. Loudon truly remarks that the chief 1·eason why the hawthorn has yielded more varieties than most otlH1r trees, is that curious nnrserymen select any remarkable vru:ioty out of the immense beds of seedlings which are annually raised for making hedges. The flowers of tho hawthorn usually include from one to three pistils; but in two varieties, named .Monogyna and Sibirica, thoro is only a single pistil; and d'Asso states that the common thom in Spain is constantly in this state. 1G6 There is also a variety which is apotalous, or l1as its p tals reduced to mere rudiments. The famous Glastonbury thorn flowers and loafs towards tho end of December, at which time it bears berries produced from an earlier crop of flowel'S. 1 r.7 It is worth notice that seveml varieties of the hawthorn, as well as of tho limo and juniper, arc very distinct in their foliage and habit whilst young, but in tho course of thirty or forty years become extremely like each other; Hi8 thus l"CmincliJ10' us of tho well-known fact that the deod[tr, tho cedar of Lelmnon, and that ~f the .Atlas, arc distinguished with tho greatest ease whilst young, but with difficulty when old. FLOWEUS. I SHALL not for several reasons tre[tt the variability of plants which are culti vatcd for their flowers alone at [l,llY great length. M[l,ny of om· favourite ldnclfl in their present state arc the descendants of two or mol'o species crossed and commingled together, and this circumstance alone woulcl render it difJicult to detect the differences duo to variation. For instance, our no. ·es, Petunias, Calceolarias, Fuchsias, Verbenas, Gladioli, Pelargoniums, &c., certainly have had a multiple origin. A botanist well acqu[tinted witl1 the par nt-forms would probably detect some curious strnctmal differences in their crossed and cultivated descendant; and ho would certainly observe many new and rcmarlmble constitutional peculiarities. I will give a few inshtn<Jes, all relating to tho Polargonium, and taken chiefly from Mr. Deck,Hi9 a famous cultivator of this plant : some varieties require more water tlmn others; some arc "very impatient of tho knife if too grceclily u. ·cd in making cuttings;" some, when potted, scarcely "show a root at the outRide of tho ball of the earth;" ono variety Tequil'es a certain amount of confinement in the pot to make it tbTow up a flower-stem; some v1trietics bloom well at the commencement of the season, others at the close; ono vaTiety is known,l7° which will stand "even pine-apple top and bottom heat, without looking any more drawn th[l,n if it bad stoocl in a common greenhouse ; and niancbo Fleur seems as if made on pt11])0SO for growing in winter, like many bulbs, and to rest all summer." These ocld com;titutional peculiarities would fit a plant when growing in a state of nature for widely different circumstances and climates. IGG Loudon's ' Arboretum et Fruticetum,' vol. ii. p. 83!. IGi Loudon's 'Gardener's 1\fo.g.,' vol. ix. 1833, p. 123. 16s Ibiu., v~l. xi. 1835, p. 503. 160 'Gardener's Chron.,' 1845, p. 623. iiO D. Deaton, in 'Cottage Gardener,' 18GO, p. 377. See also Mr. llccl;:, on ll1o ho.bits of Queen 1\fab, in' Gardener's Chronicle,' 1845, p. 226. CHAP. X. FLOWERS. 365 Flowers possess little interest under our present point of view, because they have been almost exclusively attended to and selected for their beautiful colours, size, perfect outline, and manner of growth. In these particulars hardly ono long-cultivated flower can bo named which bas not varied greatly. What docs a florist care for the shape and structure of the organs of fructification, unless, indeed, they add to the beauty of tho flower? When this is tho case, flowers become modified in imp?~·tant points; stamens and pistils may he converted into petals, and add1tlonal petn.ls may lie developed, as in all douulo flowers. The process of gradual selection by which flowers have been rendered more and more double, each stop in the process of conversion being inherited, has boon rccorclcd in several instances. In the so-called double flowers of the Composit_ ro, tb0 corollas of tho central florets aro greatly modified, and tho mod1fications arc likewi. e inherited. In tho columbine (A!Jttilr•gia vulr;an:s) son:o of the stamens arc couverLed into petals having tho shape of nectancs, ~no n~'ttly fitting into tho other; hut in ono variety they arc converted mto_ sunplo petals.1i 1 In tho hose and hose primulro, the calyx uccomcs bnghtly colomcd and enlarged so as to resemble a corolla· and M1:. W. Woolcr informs me that thiH peculiarity is transmitted; f~r he crossed a commo_n po.lyant~us with ono having a coloured calyx,l72 and so~o of the sccdlmgs mhcntcd the coloured calyx during at least six generatiOns. In tho "hen-and-chicken" daisy tho main flower is surrounded b~ a b1:ood of small flowers developed from buds in the axils of the scales of tho mvolucre. A wonderful poppy has been described, in which the sta~cns arc converted into pistils; and so strictly was this peculiarity inhcntcd that, out of 154 soedlingR, ono alone reverted to the ordinary and common type.173 Of the coclc's-comb ( Celosia cTistata ), whieh is an annual there arc several races in which the flower-stem is wonderfully" fasciated '~ or compressed; and one bas been exhibited 174 actually eighteen inches in breadth. Poloric races of Glox1·wia speciosa and Antir-rhinum mafus can be pro~)agatcd by se~d, and they diiJer in a wonderful manner from the typ10al form both m structure and appearance. A much more remru:kal>le modification has been recorded by Sir William and Dr. liooker 1 ;5 in Begonia frigicla. This plant properly produces male an~ foma~c flowers on the same fascicles; and in the female flowers the pcnanth JS superi?r; but a plant at Kcw produced, besides tho ordinary flow~rs, others whwh graduated towards a perfect hcrmaplu·odite structme. and ~n thc~e flo_wers the perianth was inferior. To show the importanc~ of tlus mod1ficatwn under a classificatory point of view, I may quote what Prof. Harve~ says, namely, that had it " occurred in a state of natme, and had a botamst collected a plant with such flowers, he would not only have 171 Moquin- Tnndon, 'Elements de Tcra.tologie,' 1841, p. 213. 17 2 See also ' Cottage Gardener,' 186(), p. 133. , 173 Quoted by Alph. de Candolle 'llihl.Univ.,' November, 1862, p . .58. ' 17 ~ Knight,' 'l'ranSI1ct. llort. Soc.,' vol. iv. p. 322. 175 • notanical 1\fngazino,' tab. 5160, :fig. 4; Dr. llookcr, in 'Gardener's Citron.,' 1860, p. lDO; Prof. Harvey, in ' Gardener's Chron.,' 1860, p. 145; Mr. Crocker, in 'Gardener's Chron.,' 18G1, p. 1092. |