Re: SPEC: Intergeneric hybrids

From: HIPSource@aol.com

In a message dated 1/4/00 9:28:01 AM Eastern Standard Time, BILLS@hsc.edu 
writes:

<< It suggests that at least some of these  hybrids may not be as they were 
listed in whatever that book was that Anner used.   >>

Apparently I must re-reiterate this bibliographical citation.

The book in question is GARDEN IRISES, published by the American Iris Society 
in 1959 and edited by L. F.  Randolph, Ph.D.

Dr. Randolph, who received his final degree at Cornell, was ninth President 
of AIS, Professor of Botany at Cornell and concurrently cytologist for the US 
Department of Agriculture, Chairman of AIS Scientific Committee (1945-56), 
who undertook monumental work in chromosome counts and embryo seed culture, 
and, working Dr. Lawrence, a taxonomist at Cornell, established the AIS iris 
classification system. In his period of authority AIS became the 
International Registration Authority for the Genus under the terms of the 
International Congress of Botanical Nomenclature. Bibliographies citing some 
of Randolph's scientific articles on the Iris may be found in WOI, The 50th 
Anniversary Edition of the AIS Bulletin, and in GARDEN IRISES.  His private 
interests included trips abroad to collect native iris species and 
experimenting with breeding therefrom. Randolph was Awarded AIS Distinguished 
Service Medal, Foster Memorial Plaque. So much for the vita of the Prime 
Mover of the book.

Now, any trained researcher, and I am one, albeit in the humanities, learns 
early the value of primary documents, and of the value of the paper trail to 
original data. Examination of same enables one to examine the factual basis 
of arguments and the development of the collective knowledge of a subject, 
which is typically an accretion with diverse elements of varying degrees of 
soundness, especially when examined in retrospect. One learns that while one 
may wish the scope of a book to have been other than what it is, the book 
reflects someone else's decisions about what they will address and in what 
detail. In my experience, the real meat of scholarship is typically found not 
in general books, but in journal articles and the decision about what 
quantity of citations of previous work may be required is one in which scope 
and the exigencies of bringing the work out in manageable form may have some 
say. It is, of course, entirely possible to assemble an impressive 
bibliographical garnish for a book which is, upon examination, revealed to be 
flimsy, dated, or incomplete. 

Reports of successful wide crosses have always caused excitement on this 
list, and we have no shortage, I believe, of skepticism and strong opinions 
on the subject, nor have we been less than eager to express these, implicitly 
or explicitly, based on what we understand from the literature to have been 
the demonstrated limits of interfertility within the Genus. But a healthy 
skepticism, as I define it, involves a suspension of strong opinion and the 
retention of an open mind in the absence of clearly convincing information. 
Of course, the question of what constitutes clearly convincing information is 
always a fun topic to kick around. 

I frankly have not got time to get further into this discussion at this time, 
nor am I interested in being called to defend information from the basic 
literature which I encountered when following up on posted statements for my 
own information and subsequently posted.  However, in the interests of 
providing some small assistance to those who are interested, I have gone to 
the files to retrieve several articles from the AIS Bulletin which are 
clearly apposite.  

Those interested in the course of exploration of fertility and interfertility 
in irises will find the seminal studies of Chandler and Stout in the twenties 
worth their attention. At this time much scientific work was being done on 
related subjects such as pollen viability and so forth. It is not my 
intention to provide a comprehensive bibliography, however, some articles 
among the many which may interest are: 

October, 1926 (no. 21) "Sterility in Apogon and Pogoniris," F. B, Moore and 
A. B. Stout.

April, 1928 (no. 27) "Science Series Number 2: Breeding Experiments," Clyde 
Chandler and A. B. Stout.

April, 1929 (no. 31) "Science Series Number 4: Report of the Breeding Work 
with Irises at the New York Botanical Garden," by Clyde Chandler and A. B. 
Stout. 

October, 1929 (no. 33) "Science Series Number 5: The Iris Scholarship for 
1929," by Dolores Fay, Clyde Chandler, and A. B. Stout.

October, 1929 (no. 33) "A Further Report on the Iris Seedlings of the 1927 
Breeding at the New York Botanical Garden." Clyde Chandler.

Together these provide tabulated data on numerous crosses of species and 
named irises with the results clearly indicated and with notations on the 
hybrids which resulted. I am inclined to entertain the notion that these are 
the foundation of at least some of the information in the Appendix in 
question. True Blue received a good deal of attention. 

Anner Whitehead
HIPSource@aol.com

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