Gardeners' Chronicle, November 10, 1900
A
BIGENERIC HYBRID
(Vallota
x Amaryllis)
William
Watson
Two years ago I saw in the garden of Colonel Tremayne, at Carclew, near Falmouth, some plants in flower which were noticed in the Gardeners' Chronicle at the time as "Seedlings of Vallota purpurea, with flowers of a distinct pleasing shade of cerise, which would win the special favour of bulb fanciers if sent to one of the meetings of the Royal Horticultural Society." Colonel Tremayne kindly sent two of the bulbs to Kew, stating that they were raised in the garden of Mr. Arthur Rix, of the Miner's Bank, Truro. When they flowered here they attracted much attention, and on the suggestion of Mr. Elwes and Mr. Bennett-Poe, I wrote to Mr. Rix for the history of these seedlings; he kindly replied as follows:—
"I will gladly tell you what I can about my Vallota seedlings. Some years sgo I fertilised a Vallota flower with pollen of the Belladonna Lily, and got a good pod of seeds, from which I raised about 100 seedlings. Of these nearly ninety were the ordinary scarlet, like the parent, and I threw them away. Two of the others were a pale scarlet, and I have them now; nine others were of the colour of those you saw at Carclew, but varying a little in shade and quality. I subsequently fertilised one of the seedlings with the Belladonna again, and only got a weakly pod containing three seeds, two of which grew, but they were much the same as the seed-bearing parent. The seedlings resemble the Vallota in not being deciduous—in fact, the only difference noticeable is the thicker necks of the bulbs and the variation in colour.
“I had previously raised seedlings of Vallota, but got no variation. I have never known Vallota to set fruit unless artificially fertilised. I believe the Belladonna must have had some influence on the seeds which produced the seedlings you are interested in. I offered them when they first flowered to a well-known London nurseryman, but as he did not think much of them, I took no further trouble to make them known. I am glad to learn from you that they interested the specialists who saw them at Kew."
Six years ago I crossed the Belladonna with Vallota, making the former the seed-parent. Good seeds were the result, and there are now half-a-dozen plants from them at Kew. None has, however, yet flowered. The plants resemble the Belladonna, but there are differences which appear to me to indicate a successful cross. Evidence is rapidly accumulating in support of the belief, held by some, that the prepotency of some parents is so great that whilst fecundation is due to the foreign pollen applied, the characters of the seed-bearing parent completely or almost smother those of the pollen parent. W. W.
Gardeners' Chronicle Jan. 31, 1891 p. 130
CROSS between VALLOTA and AMARYLLIS. Young bulbs for sale or exchange. Apply to — GARDENER, Highfield, Gainsborough.
HYBRIDIZATION IN AMARYLLEAE (1901)
A. WORSLEY
In the Gardeners Chronicle of Nov. 10, 1900, mention is made of an alleged hybrid between Vallota and Amaryllis, raised by Mr. Rix of Truro, having cerise flowers. He states that he has never known Vallota to produce seed unless artificially impregnated. This is not my experience, although it is certainly a bad seed bearer in some districts. At Terrington, in N. Yorkshire, where I cultivated Vallota, it seeded freely every autumn without any artificial impregnation.
Mr. Rix himself says that, "The only noticeable difference is the thicker necks of the bulbs, and the variation in colour"—that is from the female parent. It would appear that in Mr. Rix's seedlings, 89 per cent. came true, 2 per cent. were anaemic, and 9 per cent. showed colour variety. This is not much beyond the allowed 5 per cent. of variation in true species. I would also remark that cerise coloured Vallotas were recorded many years ago, and constitute a well ascertained, but inconstant, colour variety. I have an old plate, marked "225, J. Andrews" (believed to be from the Floral Magazine) of this variety.