Abstract
THE Royal Horticultural Society's Lily Year-book for 1938 (London: the Society's Office, Vincent Square, S.W.I. Pp. 181+36 plates. 5s. paper; 6s. cloth. 1938) contains an account by Messrs. A. B. Stout and W. M. Porterfield of “Seed Patterns and Incompatibilities in Lilium candidum”. It is shown that incompatibilities may occur among sister plants of the same species. Such disabilities are physiological in nature, and are not to be confused with failures in hybridizing fertilizations. An ingenious method of estimating incompatibility by the examination of seeds has been used. The results are considered in relation to the practical promotion of fertility by la.te fertilization, when suitable stig-matic secretion is developed, and by artificial treatments of the stigma. The Year-book contains numerous papers about the horticultural treatment of lilies; Dr. Fred Stoker has a useful article upon the geographical origin and classification of the Carniolicum group of lilies; Mr. A. D. Cotton contributes a short biography of Pere Armand David (1826–1900), the celebrated naturalist and explorer; and Mr. JB. O. Clement describes various practices for the germination of lily seed in Ontario. The year's work upon lilies revealed by the volume indicates a lack of contributions of a fundamentally scientific nature. Reports of discussions at meetings of the Society's Lily Group, published in the present Yearbook (pp. 42–79), and similar accounts in earlier years, show that those whose interest in lilies is practical and aesthetic, need, and desire, the specialized help of the geneticist, the physiologist and the pathologist.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
The Lily Year-book. Nature 143, 675–676 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143675c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143675c0