December 8, 1906 



HORTICULTURi: 



615 



ers with their lack of natural productiveness would be 

 quickly crowded out. 



The genus Mathiola and its species. Ten Week, 

 Brompton and Intermediate Stocks, are among the most 

 interesting of genera from the manner in which double 

 flowers are producod. Some sections give as high as 80 

 per cent, and others not more than 40. I remember a 

 cottager — the shoemaker of the village — whose Bromp- 

 tons and double wall flowers were unsurpassed. His 

 plan was to take out of the border all of the plants 

 showing single flowers, plant them on a group by them- 

 selves, cut off all the side sprays; when in blossom every 

 flower having more than four petals or with the least 

 confused formation was tagged with a piece of yellow 

 hemp. These were separately saved and from them 

 came the greatest number of double flowers. The seed 

 from the unmarked flowers produced a good percentage 

 of double flowers also. These seed-bearing plants were 

 a hundred or more feet away from the double ones 

 when in flower — in fact the seed was set before many of 

 the double flowers were open. (I \tish I could look on 

 the like of Sarson's Bromptons once again, three or 

 more feet high and two feet through). The manner 

 of double stocks is as inexplainable today as it was a 

 century since. The brown-flowered night-scented stock 

 often used to bear fl_owers with six or more petals. 



In a six hours' search covering miles in extent, to 

 find either a double flower of, or a different color of the 

 common dog daisy. Chrysanthemum leucanthemum, of 

 which there were growing millions and millions, some 

 in extremely rich meadow land with flower stems 30 

 inches high and others on the very poorest land where 

 they were not 8 inches high, the only variations I found 

 were very large flowers in the rich ground and very 

 small flowers in the poor ground and, rarely, a stem 

 with twin flowers back to back; also a few with broader 

 and longer petals than the type. Certainly in this case 

 neither riches nor poverty had caused any structural 

 changes or coloration. 



Double flowers are not necessary from Nature's eco- 

 nomic standpoint; are not beneficial for the extension 

 of the species; do not materially change the stature of 

 the plant; do not materially change the shape or struc- 

 ture of the leaves; as a rule diminish the odor, never 

 intensifying it; are the cause of disarrangement of the 

 generative organs; defeat the great nature-object of 

 reproduction; do not reinforce root action or assist 

 propagation; occur in nearly, if not all genera; may 

 have more intensified coloring owing to their varied 

 surfaces ; materially reduce the number of pollen grains ; 

 in many species do not impair the ovaries; are more 

 beautiful than single ones from the viewer's observa- 

 tion only; are necessary for some purpose of Nature 

 which has not been discovered. 



FaU Work 



This work on privab; grounds shouhl have been weU 

 in hand ere the end of November as there is no knowing 

 when the winter storms may serve to prevent much 

 work thereafter. Of late years winter has held off to 

 an exceptionally late period, which has a tendency of 

 impressing the dilatory and optimistic minds to regard 

 this order of things as indefinitely established; needless 

 to say that a ruthless awakening awaits them sooner or 

 later. The work in question then consists of the 

 general clearing up of the grounds, such as the raking 

 of leaves and making use of them for the packing of 

 frames, protection of the tenderest herbaceous plants, 

 or making compost heaps of them for potting and other 

 purposes for which they are invaluable. They also 

 serve to make splendid material for hot-beds in the 

 spring incorporated with fresh stable manure, thus pro- 

 longing the heat of the bed by moderating the violence 

 that is otherwise characteristic of fresh stable manure 

 alone. 



Where there are large colonies of woodland surround- 

 ing shrubberies, etc., leaves are not a small menace to 

 the latter, inasmuch as they constitute a fire-inviting 

 material; especially is this true on public grounds and 

 such other grounds where the irrepressible "young 

 Greek" runs at will oblivious of all except the excite- 

 ment that a good blaze affords. 



It goes without the saying that the trimming and 

 clearing of herbaceous plant borders and beds is another 

 important item of fall work, all of which properly done 

 contributes to neatness, not to mention the lift it gives 

 in the rush season of the year — spring. 



Included with such work must be mentioned digging 

 and trenching; as much as possible of this work should 

 be attended to in the late fall, ridge tillage of a deep 

 nature being much preferable should time and means 

 allow, as thereby frosts and air have a greater play over 

 the surface, resulting in spring in a flocculent and mel- 

 low condition that could not be otherwise obtained; 

 apart from this no small consideration is the likely 

 destruction of large quantities of insect life injurious 

 to garden crops, as they are thus suddenly arrested in 

 their progress from surface strata to lower strata out of 

 harm's reach from the severe colds and effectually 

 exposed by the operation. 



To attempt to enumerate in detail the multitudinous 

 other items of fall work that are part of a well-regu- 

 lated establishment would be to invite the task of a 

 good sized volume. One more item I cannot resist 

 mentioning, however, because it is by far too sparingly 

 adopted in this large and progressive country of ours, 

 and that is, the early fall planting of the various hardy 

 bulbs in border and grass plot; for the latter situation 

 the narcissi in their respective divisions stand pre- 

 eminent. 



~^I^nirr^ y^^.^,^,^^^ 



