180 THE FLORIST. 



cu instances ; in other words, that it demands a scientific adaptation 

 of means to produce a desired end. And it will presently be my 

 business to shew that this desired end itself is equally founded on 

 physical facts, and reducible to rule ; and that the alterations sought 

 by florists in the petals and habits of certain flowering plants are no 

 more open to the objections of the scientific botanist, than they are 

 to those which have already been considered. 



Neither is it justly alleged that either the end or the means used 

 to attain it are unnatural. We are told, for instance, that the many 

 thousand varieties of our Roses are, botanically, the same individual 

 under so many thousands of fantastic dresses, and none of them 

 natural, or conducive to the welfare of the species, or the more per- 

 fect development of its parts. On the contrary, that the greater 

 number of them can never perfect their seeds, owing to the produc- 

 tion of double flowers by the conversion of stamens into petals. 

 This might have some weight, but that it entirely rests on a fallacy, 

 which it is of some importance to notice. The Rose was not made 

 for itself, nor is its place in creation only to produce seeds or to 

 propagate its kind. It is a misunderstanding of the goodness of 

 the Creator to overlook the fact, that, like ourselves and every other 

 part of God's works, it was made for others as well as itself; and 

 that one part of its design was, to please the eye of the beholder, 

 as of fruits to please the palate of the eater. Why, else, the other- 

 wise useless enlargement of the petals of many, their elegant forms, 

 their varied and brilliant colours ? No one can say that any of these 

 things minister, except in a small and questionable degree, to the 

 welfare of the plant or of its seeds, any more than the grateful scent 

 of the Mignonette or of the Violet does to theirs, or the lusciousness 

 of the drupe, of the apricot, or of the peach, does to theirs. These 

 additions to the necessary parts of fructification were for the sole 

 advantage of others ; those that please the eye or the smelling, seem 

 to have been made for the sole pleasure of man ; and it appears to 

 have been the purpose of God in them to minister to his gratification 

 alone. And if some species of flowers are found by experience to be 

 capable of developing by cultivation greater powers of pleasing the 

 eye than are possessed by the uncultivated natural specimen, there is 

 nothing unnatural in pushing that development as far as it will go, 

 and thus bringing forth into light, the extent to which it was meant 

 to fulfil that particular purpose of its creation. 



That the arts used for this purpose are not unnatural, may be 

 seen in the analogous, instance of cultivated fruits. The apple, for 

 instance, is one of those trees " whose seed is in itself." Around 

 that seed is a fleshy envelope, pleasant to the eye, fragrant to the 

 smell, and good for food ; none of which qualities add to the per- 

 fection or security of the seed, but are intended for the use and 

 gratification of men and animals. But this is not so with all the 

 produce of those seeds of the tree, or any thing like it. Sow the 

 seeds, and under the most favourable circumstances not above one 

 in five hundred of the plants that spring from them can be expected 

 to be worth cultivating for its own fruit. Are all the rest then 



