THE FLORIST. 125 



of fancy flowers, and even carry their prejudices so far as to dislike 

 the beauties that have been obtained by art. 



Here, then, are three formidable classes of opponents, to one or 

 other of which I think all the objections I have heard raised to the 

 art of the florist may be referred. And as my object in these papers 

 is to shew that they are all and severally untenable, it appears better 

 to meet them and join issue at once ; after which I will endeavour 

 to demonstrate and apply those fixed laws of nature, through which 

 have been developed whatever advances have yet been, or will here- 

 after be made in the improvement of certain flowering plants. 



I. The first objection is, that what are counted excellences in 

 the eyes of amateurs are mere matters of taste and caprice ; that the 

 standards by which they are judged are purely arbitrary and con- 

 ventional ; and that no sufficient reason can be given why any other 

 standards might not as well be adopted as those in use, because taste 

 is most variable and inconsistent. 



Persons who thus reason should be reminded that the general 

 amount of consent among those who have engaged in the pursuit 

 and paid attention to it, — and those not of one time or one place, or 

 among those only who were influenced by each other's opinions, but 

 of all times and of various countries, and often bearing no respect 

 towards one another, — should suggest a doubt whether facts are not 

 against them. The truth is, it is a curious matter of inquiry, and 

 one of those which led the writer to think upon the subject, how 

 much the facts of the case are against them, and tend the other way ; 

 how constant it is that frequent and attentive examination of many 

 varieties of the same species of flower almost in every instance leads 

 the cultivator to value certain peculiarities, whether pointed out to 

 him or not, which constitute the properties of that species of flower. 



Not that each would prefer the same variety ; that would imply 

 that there is no place for taste at all, for which I shall shew that 

 there is a wide, but not an unlimited, field. But that in all the 

 varieties that each most esteems, there will be found certain charac- 

 teristic points of excellence. This suggests what will be proved to 

 be a fact, that for such agreement there is a reason founded in nature; 

 a reason we will afterwards investigate. In the meantime the mere 

 intimation it gives that these preferences are not arbitrary, is a suffi- 

 cient answer to the objection as it is usually made. 



The same appearance of mere arbitrary standards of excellence is 

 found in many, perhaps in most, other objects of pursuit. An ordi- 

 nary person going among the stock of a farmer who breeds high, 

 would in all probability make the same mistake that you complained 

 of in one ignorant of Pelargoniums, and excite a smile of pity or con- 

 tempt through his unacquaintance with the technical value of level 

 backs, flat loins, wide forelegs, and straight sides, or by shewing so 

 much want of discernment as actually to praise a good-looking ani- 

 mal with a black nose ; a fault as inexcusable in a cow, and as surely 

 indicative of defective breeding, as the same appearance would be at 

 the bottom of the cup of a Tulip. 



Now these marks are not arbitrary ; no one supposes them to 



