Sportive Plants.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 33, 14 August 1902, Page 20

Sportive Plants.

The arts of hybridisation and cross-fertilisation, artificially conducted, are not the only things which bring us novelties for our gardens, says a writer in Britain at Work. A plant may ' sport,' i.e., throw up one flower that differs entirely from every other on the same plant. If this is good, every endeavor is made to ' fix ' it, and a new variety is secured. Chrysanthemums are amongst the ' sportive ' plants, and it is a curious fact in relation to them that the same variety may ' sport ' in two or three gardens hundreds of miles apart, and the fresh flower will be similar in each instance. Observation, too, ha 1 * given us many an excellent improvement. For example, when Messrs tarter bought the stock of 'Telegraph ' Pea from a Mr Culverwell, they sent the seeds to their Essex farms to be grown. The man in charge was keenly observant, and seeing round and wrinkled seeds, he separated them carefully. The result was a distinct variety, which was named ' Telephone.' The wellknown green pea ' Duke of Albany ' also came from ' Telegraph.' A gardener named Abbot noticed one pod on a row of ' Telegraph ' that was much finer than any other, and he saved it. There were eight seeds, and every one gave a different variety, but on«? only was good. This was tended with special care, was selected and reselected, until ' Duke of Albany' was secured.