394 



FLOWERS. 



Chap. X. 



way and began to sport into those changes which now so delight 

 us." 189 The flowers have been greatly modified in shape from a 

 flat to a globular form. Anemone and ranunculus-like races, 190 

 which differ in the form and arrangement of the florets, have 

 arisen ; also dwarfed races, one of which is only eighteen inches m 

 height. The seeds vary much in size. The petals are uniformly 

 coloured or tipped or striped, and present an almost infinite 

 diversity of tints. Seedlings of fourteen different colours m have 

 been raised from the same plant; yet, as Mr. Sabine has remarked , 

 "many of the seedlings follow their parents in colour." The period 

 of flowering has been considerably hastened, and this has "probably 

 been effected by continued selection. Salisbury, writing 180S, 

 says that they then flowered from September to November ; in 

 1828 some new dwarf varieties began flowering in June; 192 and 

 Mr. Grieve informs me that the dwarf purple Zelinda in his garden 

 is in full bloom by the middle of June and sometimes even earlier. 

 Slight constitutional differences have been observed between certain 

 varieties : thus, some kinds succeed much better in one part of 

 England than in another; 193 and it has been noticed that some 

 varieties require much more moisture than others. 194 



Such flowers as the carnation, common tulip, and hyacinth, which 

 are believed to be descended, each from a single wild form, present 

 innumerable varieties, differing almost exclusively in the size, form, 

 and colour of the flowers. These and some other anciently culti- 

 vated plants which have been long propagated by offsets, pipings, 

 bulbs, &c, become so excessively variable, that almost each new 

 plant raised from seed forms a new variety, " all of which to 

 describe particularly," as old Gerarde wrote in 1597, " were to roll 

 Sisyphus's stone, or to number the sands." 



hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis). — It may, however, be worth 

 while to give a short account of this plant, which was introduced 

 into England in 1596 from the Levant. 195 The petals of the original 

 flower, says Mr. Paul, were narrow, wrinkled, pointed, and of a 

 flimsy texture ; now they are broad, smooth, solid, and rounded. 

 The erectness, breadth, and length of the whole spike, and the size 

 of the flowers, have all increased. The colours have been intensified 

 and diversified. Gerarde, in 1597, enumerates four, and Parkinson, 



189 'Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. ill-, 

 1820. p. 225. 



190 Loudon's ' Gardener's Mag.,' vol. 

 vi., 1830, p. 77. 



191 Loudon's ' Encyclop. of Garden- 

 ing,' p. 1035. 



192 'Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. i. 

 p. 91; and Loudon's 'Gardener's 

 Mag.,' vol. iii., 1828, p. 179. 



193 Mr. Wildman, in ' Gardener's 

 Chron.,' 1843, p. 87. 'Cottage Gar- 

 dener,' April 8, 1853, p. 33. 



194 M. Faivre has given an inte- 

 resting account of the successive 

 variations of the Chinese primrose, 

 since its introduction into Europe 

 about the year 1820 : ' Revue des 

 Cours Scientitiques,' June, 18G9, p. 

 428. 



195 The best and fullest account of 

 this plant which I have met with is 

 by a famous horticulturist, Mr. Paul, 

 of Waltham, in the ' Gardener's 

 Chronicle,' 1864, p. 342. 



