INTRODUCTION 5 



in a wonderful manner, and there is no doubt whatever that home- 

 raised plants are far more easily cultivated than imported ones. 

 Of course, the very finest varieties of many hybrids are quite 

 beyond the circumstances of the vast majority of growers, but year 

 after year there is an improvement in the lower-priced seedlings, 

 simply because the parent plants are being more carefully selected. 

 In all probability, as the years pass and the importation of popular 

 species becomes more difficult, we shall find the finer forms of the 

 latter reproduced from seed at home, and so the " weedy " forms 

 will gradually disappear from cultivation. 



