File:The American florist - a weekly journal for the trade (1908) (17522726453).jpg

Title: The American florist : a weekly journal for the trade
Identifier: americanfloristw3008amer (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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68 The American Florist. Feb. S, (3) Crimson and maroon section, comprising all shades of crimson, maroon or scarlet-maroon. (4) Scarlet section, comprising all shades of red and scarlet. (5) Light pink section, including all shades of salmon, flesh or Daybreak tints. (C) Dark pink section, including all rose, cherry and deep pink tones. (7) White section. (8) Yellow-variegated section, including all varieties having a yellow ground with scarlet, crinison or pink markings. I have not as yet been abh; to establish a pure yellow section, for even though the seedling plant may give pure yellow flowers for a time, as soon as propaga- tion is carried on to any extent, more or less variegation appears. (f) White-variegated section, comprising all varieties with white grounds marked with var- ious colors. (10) Pink-vanegated section, comprising all varieties having Ji. pink ground of any shade with markings in deeper colors. In the purple and bi'je section I have not as yet succeeded in producing anything that might be termed a blue; for, although we have had seveial varieties showing a distinct blue shade there has invariably been enough pink in it to convert the tone into a purple or a mauve. The crimson, dark and light pink, scarlet, and white sections have been fairly well fixed; but the yellow, white and pink variegated, and blue' sections will be very difficult to fix, as they are essentially mosaics, and there is a constant tendency towards variation in all their progeny. (n order to render the study of pedigrees easier, I have devised a system of bench cards which are used as labels tied to each variety under experiment, and which at the end of the season are filed away in a card index, thus preserving all of the original records made in my work. I find this system exceptionally use- ful, as it enables one to determine at a glance the pedigree of any variety when working upon it. My object has been to study out some system whereby the color tones might be puri- fied, and rendered more brilliant or delicate and more pleasing to the eye; and while I have paid some considerable attention to size of flower, freedom of bloom, integrity of calyx, length and strength of stem, and fragrance, the purity of the color has been my first considera- tion. In order to develop more brilliant shades, I have, as a rule, confined my crosses to plants both bearing flowers of the color which I desire to improve; That is to say, crimsons were crossed with crimsons, light pinks with light pinks, dark pinks with dark pinks, whites with whites, and so on ; and the result seems to indicate the following hypothesis, viz., that the percentage of color contained in the parentage for sevej'al generations back controls to a very large extent the color of the progeny. I do notj of course, mean that by using parents on both sides that have practically a scarlet pedigree for several generations back all scarlets will be invariably produced, but that where such par- ents are used, the chancec of securing the im- proved scarlet color d'isired are greatly increased. True, the progeny of such parentage frequently show many shades varying from the red or scarlet, such as pinks, maroons, purples, and even white and yellow grounds with more or less variegation of all the colors mentioned. Af?Tiin. a cross between a white variety, having practically a white pedigree for several genera- tions, frequently pioduces scarlet flowers; but, as a rule, such scarlets are not as brilliant or persistent as those produced from plants having only scarlet pedigrees. One of the best ways of proving this hypothesis is to take two scarlet parents, the pedigrees of which are mainly white. By crossing these, very few scarlets will be pro- duced—sometimes none at all—but a large per- cpntage of the progeny will frequently be pure white, or white grounds marked with scarlet or various shades of pink. I have sometimes thought that by taking a scarlet variety of comparatively pure scarlet pedigree and cross- ing it with a white variety the pedigree of which is largely scarlet, more clear and per- sistent scarlet tones are produced than where the pure scarlet pedigrees are used. For I have often found that with pure scarlet pedigrees there is -^ tendency for the color, even though it be very tJriUiant, to blacken, or turn a slaty shade when ex'i'posed to bright sunshine. While I have not been A)^le to prove to my satisfac- tion that this hypc>thesis is right, there still seems to be evidence -v^enough to warrant the assertion that if you desire free-blooming habits, use parents having early ■^free-blooming habits. The same should hold goodV. i^ yo" desire to produce varieties with extra sjarge blooms, or perfect calyx, or any other pecu;li^rity in habit or form of flower; it also seems'. to hold good in regard to fragrance. Again, the ^3.rl3'^-bloom- ing varieties usually have small to nr^dium-sized blooms, and the very large flowering, varieties afe generally late and inclined to ^^ shy bloomers. This can to some extent be\ '^'^^^- come by crossing large-flowering late-blo(iji"iJ^S varieties with the early free-blooming ones ■wi^hich have the largest blossoms. This, if foll(Owed up, will in the end produce large-flowered trarly- blooming varieties. Working on these ■ ilines, I have already succeeded in producing' jAlma Ward, which, under our intensive culture, -gives flowers ranging from two and one-half to a lit- tle over four inches in diameter on stems from two to three feet in length, according to the season ; and these flowers are produced in suf- ficient abundance to make the variety very profitable commercially. It is also a fairly early bloomer, coming into flower by October 1. This variety was obtained by crossing Pros- perity, a large-flowered, not very free variety, with a white seedling having a very large flower and long stems, and quitd a free bloomer. --■'■""" PARENTAL INFLUENCE. Peter Fisher, the raiser of Lawson and Enchantress, two of the most satisfactory of our American commercial varieties, secured his strain from crosses between Daybreak and a sport of Tidal Wave, two quite large-flowered very free-blooming as well as early varieties. In Lawson a curious blending of the qual- ities of both parents may be observed. Day- break is a long-stemmed variety; Tidal Wave usually has quite short stems in the early part of the season, but as the season advances they become as long as those of the parent Day- break. Double flowers may be produced by crossing single blooms with pollen from very double ones, and the more double the pollen parent is, the greater seems to be the propor- tion of double flowering seedings produced. Studies of color characteristics during the past 12 years seem to-^ave determined—that the male parent does not exercise any paramount or dom- inant influence—but that either male or female or both nay determine the dominant charac- teristics of the progeny. In the case of seedlings used from other hybridizers, I am not able to give the color parentage, but expect if we had such color parentage it would not tend to change the re- sults. My conclusions from these studies have led me to believe that it is not either parent that exercises dondnant influence upon the hy- brid, but there may be several elements which tend to control the characteristics in the hybrid. As for instance, the total percentage of the characteristics of a number of ancestors which may he illustrated as follows: Supposing that crossing a dark pink upon a white, 60 per cent of the ancestry on both sides was dark pink, the chances to secure a dark pink in the hybrid would be largely in proportion to the percentage of dark pink existing in the ancestry on both sides. On the other hand, supposing that we crossed a white with a white which had a large percentage of dark pink in the ancestry, and, as the result of said cross, we produced a large percentage of whites. This might tend to show that the condition of the chromasomes in the cells exercised the paramount influence in
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