DOUBLE FLOWERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19270, 6 September 1924, Page 3

DOUBLE FLOWERS.

Written for the Otago Daily Times. By Fawcett Clapper/ton, B.So. The poet Tagoro somewhere says that at a certain stage of our appreciatiou of beauty it “has come to us with a vigorous blow to awaken our consciousness from its primitive lethargy.” That perhaps accounts for tho popularity of double (lowers. The appreciation of colour, wo may presume, is easier than tho appreciation of form, and though the latter bo marred by the doubling of a flower the greater mass of colour more than compensates for tho loss. How else can one. account for the demand for double primroses, shapeless bunches of crowded petals where should bo the simple grace of a flower that has moved poets to immortal song, There is no denying the stimulus of their bold colour; it is a blow that awakens us out of lethargy. In our desire to uphold the superior claims of the natural forms of flowers we are backed up by Nature herself. And why? Because they do not, in many instances, perform the allimportant function of reproduction, the thing above all others that Nature has a care for.

Here, however, we had better notice what, exactly, w© mean by doubling. A double chrysanthemum is not the same thing as a double primrose. The former is a composite flower with many complete florets, and the difference between a single and a double is that in the latter every floret is provided with a long tongue of ligulo, whereas a single flower has hgulate florets round tho margin only. Now take the double primrose or the double stock. There you will find that the flower has been “doubled,” the petals increased many times oyer, at the expense of the reproductive oragns. Tho stamens and carpels are turned into petals, completely or partially, and are no longer able to form pollen and ovules, and therefore never set seed. All the resources of the flower are spent in display. The double paeonia, on tho other hand, performs _ its parental functions as surely as the single, and a comparison between these two need not be weighted with consideration of any default in this respect. In some flowers—primulas, carnations, and roses—all the stages between stamen or carpel and petal may be found, —from an almost perfect stamen showing the beginning of transformation through a series to a petal having at the side of the “claw” the remnant of another. This supports the theory that a stamen or a crapel is a sporophyll or spore-bearing leaf homologous with the sporophyll of a fern. There is no definite boundary separating. these organs from petals, sepals, scare-leaves, and foliage-leaves. A double flower like the stock or primrose has lost that mystic quality of function which is the truth of its existence. “However fair and dainty it may look,” says our philosopher again, “it is pressed to do a great service. It must bring forth the fruit, or the continuity of plant life will be broken and the earth will be turned into a desert ere long.” Every spot and lino of colour, every hair, tube and nectary, all its fragrance and it scunning devices are for one end. A stern necessity is imposed upon it, neglect of which is visited sooner or later with extinction. Only when a flower is a true one in this sense can it as truly become what Tagore calls it, “the messenger of the King.” The spiritual role of the flower is as real as its natural one'. ; But the two are inseparable. Whether we" can explain it or no, the beauty of a waving field of wheat, in the poet’s as in the farmer’s eye, docs not exist apart from its fruitfulness. But surely this must be a thankless task to depreciate such an old favourite as the double garden stock with all its delightful associations. A way must be found to justify it. Suppose we say that the stock adopts a division of labour, relegating to its plain members the tasks of reproduction and to its flaunting beauties—what?

So long as those unacquainted with the intimate domestic affairs of the flowers value the doubles beyond their deserts, the methods of producing them will be of interest. ' The double, primrose is propagated, as a rule, by root division, which is slow and accounts for the scarcity of the plants. At one time double primroses of all sorts were the rage. As far back as 1774' an Edinburgh nurseryman named three sorts—yellow, red, and double velvet, “a great beauty, being almost of a crimson colour with a bright gold-coloured stamina” —and therefore not quite “double.” The late Mr H. P. Brotherston stated that double auriculas, about the year 1(183, were quoted by nurserymen at prices up to £i and £3 each. Another well-known Scottish gardener, Mr Pirie, was a very successful raiser of double primroses in a great variety of colours. They were produced in accordance with the “laws of Mendel.” In a letter to the vvriter he describes his method somewhat ns follows;—A double primrose was used ns the male parent. It was chosen from a variety called (if memory serves) Silver Wings, because that variety was not quite sterile, and from the sides of the inner petals a little fertile pollen could be obtained. The .mother plants were primroses of all colours. The seedlings of the “first filial” were all single, singleness being apparently a dominant character. But when these were inbred the seedlings of the “second filial” were partly doubles.

Double stocks are obtained in a sijnpler way, for they are sports from the singles, and are obtained from seed gathered from single flowers. The grower of stocks is always liable to the disappointment of raising a batch of singles when he expects doubles, and the skill of the raiser of the seed is shown when the proportion of doubles is high. Amateurs should note that the largest and strongest seedlings are usually the singles, and if any are to be discarded it should be the big ones. When growing, plants for seed some gardeners mark all flowers that show five petals instead of the normal four. This looks reasonable, as the extra petal may denote an incipient tendency to the double form. Others collect seed from singles that have been growing close to or among a batch of doubles. This looks like superstition. More likely than either of those is the age and (he feeding of the mother plant. Long experience enables many nurserymen to obtain a remarkably high percentage of the double forms.

It may bo conceded that one of the two loveliest garden flowers, the lily and (he rose, is a double flower. But double roses do set seed, or sometimes: and we are glad to lot it go at _ that, for the rose, by common consent, is above suspicion or criticism But the flower, above all others, perfect on every count, is the lily, in simplicity and symmetry of form, in elegant bearing, rich colour, and—doing its bit.