Florist and Pomologist 1: 115-116 (1848)
ON GLOXINIA CARTONII, AND OTHER HYBRID VARIETIES
BY MR. CARTON, LATE GARDENER TO THE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, SYON PARK.
The Gloxinia in question was raised from Gloxinia rubra crossed with Sinningia guttata. In a letter I received from the late Dean of Manchester, some doubts were expressed as to the possibility of such a cross having been effected, and suggesting that there was perhaps some error existing.
This induced me to repeat the experiment, and the results were precisely the same in every respect. Not content with this, I was determined to try what I could do with Sinningia hirsuta, a plant apparently more distinct from the Gloxinia than Sinningia guttata. The results were the tree-growing varieties exhibited by me at the Horticultural Society's rooms, Regent Street. The Gloxinias were always the mother-plants, for I have never been able to induce the Sinningia to seed when crossed with the pollen of the Gloxinia.
I should state, that the tree-varieties were raised not from Gloxinia rubra, but from Gloxinia Cartonii. What they were deficient in was brilliancy of colour; and to obtain this, I crossed them with Gloxinia Cartonii, the produce of which I left at Syon. Had the opportunity been afforded me, I should have crossed these plants with Sinningia vellutina,* to retain the tree-like habit, and then again with the large growing and flowering Gloxinias.
If my expectations had been realised, I should have obtained strong branching plants, several feet high, from which would have depended large brilliant and varied coloured flowers of the elegant form of the Gloxinia; and I think it impossible to imagine more beautiful objects than such would form for the stove and conservatory, or for the greenhouse in the summer and autumn months. If I have the opportunity in the situation I may next obtain, I certainly shall try what can be effected in the way proposed. Laburnum Cottage, Isleworth.
[There is a singular feature connected with Gloxinia Cartonii which may interest our readers; and if ever they have been surprised at seeing the same name applied to two very distinctly-marked plants, what we shall now state will satisfactorily account for the difference. We had the plant from the original stock at Syon. When it bloomed in our collection, it shewed the white marking of the throat flowing completely out over the lower lip, and to the extremity of the flower. This gave rise to the supposition, that it was a distinct variety that had been handed to us in mistake; for in the original plant the lower lip has a well-defined rosy margin. It was, however, satisfactorily proved that it always assumed this character in our collection, and retained its true one in its native place; and as the circumstance involves the interesting question, of what can occasion the difference, we may also state how we proved the fact. Two plants in bloom were selected. They were both carefully marked; the one was placed in our stove, its fellow remained at Syon. In a short time, our plant altered the colouring of its flowers, whilst the other retained its true character; and in this state they were placed on the table at Regent Street, and attention directed to the circumstance by Professor Lindley. In either character it is a very beautiful variety.]
Another illustration of Gloxinia Cartonii was published in Paxton's Magazine of Botany vol. 11 (1844)
Could Carton have confused Sinningia villosa with S. hirsuta?
Annals of Horticulture p.39 (1847)
Sinningia Villosa, vars.—Of this plant, crossed with Gloxinia caulescens, Mr. Carton, gardener to the Duke of Northumberland, at Syon, has raised several hybrids: the plants manifest a disposition to acquire a stem like the Sinningia; and the blossoms of some have a dull purple tinge; others resemble the pale greenish yellow of the parent. They are not handsome: they were blooming in September. Natural order, Gesneraceae.
It is interesting to note that Carton was also responsible for Hymenocallis x macrostephana. William Herbert (1846) wrote: "... I am satisfied that my late brother's gardener, Mr. Carton, now residing with the Duke of Northumberland, raised at Highclere two beautiful mules between Hymenocallis speciosa and Ismene calathina, and I am thereby convinced that, notwithstanding their diversity of form and habits, Ismene is also to be considered as a sub-genus or section of Hymenocallis."
Rural Cyclopedia pp. 458-459 (1851)
GLOXINIA
A genus of superbly-flowering tropical plants, of the gesneria family. All its species are low-growing herbaceous evergreens, very similar in the appearance of the plants to gesnerias, but much more massive in the bulk, elegant in the form, and delicate in the tinting of their tubulous flowers. Three purple-flowered species, G. maculata, G. speciosa, and G. caulescens, were brought from tropical South America, in respectively 1739, 1815, and 1826; a blue-flowered species, G. hirsuta, in 1824; and a red-flowered species, G. rubra, in 1840.—But the showy species, G. speciosa, comprises a number of permanent varieties, with different shades of colour in the flower, and, when raised from seed in any ordinary hot-house sowing, it very frequently produces some plants with purple flowers, some with white flowers, and some with various tints and colours intermediate between purple and white. Some of the oldest of its chief permanent varieties are G. s. alba, with white flowers, G. s. maxima, purple and white, G. s. menziesii, blue and white, G. s. violacea, violet coloured, and G. s. pallida, pale blue.—The red-flowered species, G. rubra, has become a greater favourite than even the showy; and, very soon after it became known, it began to originate very many most beautiful hybrids. The flower of the normal plant, when first expanding, has a deep, rich, blood-red colour, with a much darker tint combined with a slight shade of brown in the throat; and after being for some time open, it assumes a paler hue, with a prevalence of beautiful crimson, but the lower part of the throat evolving a tinge of blue, while the upper part retains its original intense colour. The principle hybrids of this species in one year, the year 1844, were the magnificent, the remarkable, the two-coloured, and Carton's; and these were raised, along with many others, from seeds of the red-flowering gloxinia fertilized with Sinningia guttata. The flower of the magnificent hybrid, G. r. magnifica, has a pinkish flesh colour, with a pink tube and white throat; and the plant is strong and has an erect habit of growth. The flower of the remarkable hybrid, G. r. insignis, has a pink tube, with spreading and nearly white segments or limb, the upper portion shaded with the colour of the tube, and the throat tinged with blue. The flower of the two-coloured hybrid, G. r. bicolor, has a deep bluish purple colour, with a whitish throat, and
with an edging of white on the upper part of the limb. The flower of Carton's hybrid, G. r. Cartoni, is large, full flowered, and of good substance, with the throat and the margin white, and with the other parts of a deep pink, and increasing in intensity near the mouth of the tube.—Gloxinias may be readily raised, not only from seed, but from any cuttings of a leaf which are allowed to retain a portion of the midrib. Plants should be shaken up and potted in February, and repotted when their roots appear through the bottom of the first pots; and, if after this treatment, they be plunged in a bark bed, and surrounded with moss on which the leaves can rest, they will begin to bloom profusely in April, and will possess comparatively great brilliance of colour. Few floral objects are more superb or exquisitely beautiful than a number of gloxinias growing in a bed of roots and moss.
