I873-] NOTES ON SELECTION OF VARIETIES. 11 



NOTES ON THE SELECTION OF VARIETIES. 



In order to be successful in the ordinary routine of a garden, or in the 

 culture of either fruits, flowers, or vegetables, there are certain natural 

 laws relating to light, heat, air, soils, and moisture, which must be 

 fulfilled. These laws, or axioms of vegetable physiology, are either 

 directly or indirectly understood by most of our practical horticulturists ; 

 but, at the same time, I have often thought that our present subject 

 has not been studied or worked out in practice so much as it, from 

 its importance to mankind in general, deserves. Our success in the 

 cultivation of fruits, flowers, or vegetables, depends in a great measure 

 on the selection of good varieties, according to the particular season of 

 the year at which the crop is required. To illustrate more fully the 

 results of careful selection, Ave need only point to the magnificent new 

 Grapes of a Thompson, a Pearson, or a Standish ; the beautiful 

 Fuchsias of Cannel or Smith ; the zonal Pelargoniums of Turner, 

 Grieve, or Wills ; or the Peas of Laxton, — to say nothing of other 

 horticulturists whom we could name by the dozen did our space per- 

 mit, and who equally deserve our admiration and respect. 



The improvement of races is one of the most noble of all pursuits ; 

 and by devoting some portion of our lives to this laudable object, 

 we not only reap in many cases a rich harvest ourselves, but we leave 

 a goodly heritage to posterity — a monument more durable than either 

 gilded marble or burnished brass. To come to a practical argument, 

 the improvement of existing forms or races depends in a great 

 measure on the judicious selection of the pollen and seed-bearing parents, 

 added to a careful weeding out of the seedlings themselves, so as to 

 insure as far as possible constitutional vigour. It often occurs that the 

 most lanky and debilitated seedlings will produce the finest or richest- 

 coloured flowers ; but seedling cross-breds, or hybrids that have a bad 

 habit of growth, should never be tolerated, except to cross with plants 

 of a better habit and better constitution. A plant of any kind, to be 

 perfect in its class, must have the best habit of growth as well as the 

 finest flower or noblest fruit ; for to obtain a fine flower or fruit at 

 the expense of a neat habit, or of constitutional health and vigour, is 

 at the best only a questionable improvement. 



Florists' flowers afi'ord us familiar examples ; but if we look at either 

 stove or greenhouse plants. Orchids or Ferns, we often find extreme 

 variability in the habits of different individuals of the same species, or 

 in the relative size, colour, period, or profusion of their flowers. It 

 is these distinctions that give us the opportunity of exercising our 

 judicial powers of selection, and the practical result is the propagation 

 of those marked forms best suited to our tastes or requirements, as 



