124 THE FLORIST. 



tunity of doing so, of taking the matter in hand ; and perhaps it 

 would be well, in the first place, to institute a course of experiments 

 having for their object a more perfect knowledge of means whereby 

 it may be brought to a flowering state with greater certainty than 

 it hitherto has been. In the mean while, I promise you, circum- 

 stances permitting, that I shall not be unmindful of the subject, nor 

 fail in publishing the result of my experience. I remember, several 

 years ago, having seen a purple variety of Echinatum, but cannot 

 find any one who has it. Can any of your readers assist me in this 

 matter ? An East Anglican. 



ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 



To the Superintendent of The Florist. 



No. I. 

 When you said, in your Number for November, that you had had a 

 smile excited by seeing the worst Pelargoniums in your collection 

 the most admired, you only spoke the experience of all who have a 

 collection of any florists' flowers ; to whom it is a common mortifica- 

 tion, when exhibiting the objects of their care to casual observers, to 

 have the most perfect kinds passed by without notice, even when 

 attention is called to them, while the defective are singled out for 

 approbation. This well-known fact is often appealed to as a proof 

 of the intrinsic unsoundness of the florist's standards of preference, 

 and of the uselessness of his labours ; in fact, that all is mere whim 

 and caprice. 



There is also another difference between the cultivator and the 

 public, somewhat more specious as a matter of reproach against us, 

 and often triumphantly adduced, as decisive of the advantage pos- 

 sessed by the uninitiated over the initiated, — that a simple admirer 

 of nature will look with pleasure upon a Primrose or a Pansy, from 

 which the connoisseur would turn with disgust. It is thence argued 

 that our science is worse than useless. 



Nor is this treatment of our pursuit confined to those who, being 

 ignorant themselves, would fain plead for " ignorance as bliss." The 

 really scientific and kindred botanist (he must excuse us for claiming 

 the relationship of a younger brother) misappreciates our labours, 

 and holds them in greater abhorrence than the most resolute up- 

 holder of the "natural system" of vandyked Pinks and Carnations. 

 He calls our double flowers monsters, and our varieties hybrids. Per- 

 haps it may be new to some of your readers that the meaning of that 

 latter word is, " offspring of violence done to nature," And as we, 

 in the simplicity of our ignorance, or the consciousness of our recti- 

 tude, have adopted his term of reproach as a convenient one to ex- 

 press a factitious variety obtained by crossing the seed, it will remain 

 as a standing testimony of the opinion botanists had of the practice. 

 And it is a fact that, as a class, they still despise the whole system 



