302 Bulletin 136. 



we often have to contend in the testing of plants. The two 

 plants at the left are fit to produce excellent flowers (though not 

 trained for the production of exhibition blooms) whilst those at 

 the right are plants which are expected to be compared with 

 them. The past season it was so necessary to give forceful cul- 

 ture, — by very heavy fertilizing, — to bring some of the plants into 

 line, that the strong plants (which grew in the same bed) re- 

 ceived an additional and perhaps untrue advantage. Even then, 

 some of the plants could not be made to bloom. 



It may be well to say, once for all, that these estimates of floral 

 novelties are not mere hurried and incidental measurements and 

 opinions. When any flower is under test, at least one man lives 

 with it when it is in bloom. He spends the greater part of his 

 time with it. Every description of the varieties is read and com- 

 pared with the plants, the flowers are studied from every point of 

 view, and an opinion is obtained from every visitor who has a 

 critical knowledge of the subject. This careful study day by day 

 is more than the florist, busy with the demands of trade, can ex- 

 pect to give. The errors, therefore, are those which are to be 

 attributed ^'> faulty judgment and to the behavior of plants grown 

 from poor stock. In the following chrysanthemums, for ex- 

 ample, the judgments are not those of Mr. Miller alone. They 

 are a compound of the opinions of himself, Mr. Hunn, myself, 

 and of many persons who visited us. 



This means that we desire to do more, if we can, than to make 

 a mere variety test. We should like to keep pace with the range 

 of variation, the tendencies, and the needs, in any plant which 

 we study. We have no desire simply to recommend varieties. 

 We have no interest in a variety as such. If, for example, we 

 commend Lenawee amongst chrysanthemums, it is not because 

 we have the slightest concern for that variety as an entity or 

 trade novelty, but simply because that name has been applied to 

 what seems to be the highest development of a particular type of 

 white flower. We hope that the evolution will reach a higher 

 point in the present year. 



A leading difl&culty with old varieties of any flower is the fact 

 that they tend to run out by variation. The very fact that such 

 various results are got from different grades of stock is proof that 



