wild types. The blooming time is early spring.

Another series of early-blooming, small-flowered species is represented
by _G. blandus_, flesh colored, _G. Watsonius_, scarlet, _G. alatus_,
yellow and red, and _G. tristis_, pale yellow, sweet scented. All are
native to the Cape of Good Hope and can endure little cold. They are
admirably suited for window and greenhouse culture and are interesting
subjects for interbreeding, though no startling results should be
expected. The winter-blooming varieties grown by florists, such as the
_Bride_, _Delicatissima_, and _Peach Blossom_, belong to the hybrid
section known as _Gladiolus Colvillii_, which is, without doubt, a
hybrid between _G. cardinalis_ and _G. tristis_. The corms of these
early-blooming species are less resistant than those of the
summer-blooming kinds and can rarely be kept over winter in good
condition. The species in this class are many, several are fragrant,
and all are worth growing by the specialist for their individual charm,
but few are likely to attain commercial importance in this country for a
considerable time.

Summer Blooming Species.

Our popular garden and commercial varieties are, with scarcely an
exception, developments of strong-growing and relatively late-blooming
species found wild in South Africa. The chief of these is _G.
psittacinus_, native of Natal, but cultivated in Europe since 1830. It
is a striking and robust species with hooded, narrow, red-and-yellow
flowers, borne in a scattering manner on a tall fleshy scape or spike.
Eleven years later a seedling appeared in the famous Van Houtte
Nurseries, Ghent, Belgium, thought to be a hybrid between _psittacinus_
and _G. cardinalis_, the latter a tall scarlet flowered species or
variety of uncertain origin, known to have been cultivated as early as
1785. The Van Houtte seedling, named _Gandavensis_ in honor of the city
of its origin, was so superior to _psittacinus_ as to cause the latter
to at once go out of cultivation.

_Gandavensis_ made a great sensation in its time and is still the best
representative of the old-time gaudy red-and-yellow garden gladiolus, or
corn flag. It was eagerly welcomed by breeders of the day, among others
the accomplished French hybridizer, Mons. Souchet, of Fontainebleu, who
really laid the foundation of the modern _Gandavensis_ strain, the
basis of all that is best in the summer-blooming section. The
predominating types of the finest _Gandavensis_ varie