166 REMARKS ON THE OT11GIN OF DOUBLE FLOWERS. 



petals, and the pistil into green leaves, and the quantity of each 

 greatly increased. In the Rhododendron the flowers are produced 

 from the terminal bud of the shoot ; if the summer and autumn have 

 been warm, the bud swells larger, and we have a branch of flowers 

 instead of a branch of leaves the ensuing 'spring; but it is always 

 difficult to say, till the bud is evolved, whether we shall have leaves 

 or flowers. In raising double or full flowers from seed, therefore, we 

 should carefully guide our attempts by experience ; in procuring the 

 seed, we must get it from the most double flowers we can, as the 

 progeny always bears more or less resemblance to the parent. In 

 the Dahlia the flower is not, strictly speaking, full ; it belongs to the 

 compound class, in which a great number of florets are arranged on 

 one common receptacle ; in single dahlias, and other flowers of this 

 class, the ray or outer row of florets has the petals fully evolved and 

 coloured ; in the florets of the centre or disk, the petal is only in the 

 state of a small tube, inside of which the stamens are situated. Rich 

 cultivation forces these tubes to assume the state of coloured petals ; 

 sometimes tubular, as in the quilled dahlias, and sometimes flosculose 

 or flattened, as in others ; sometimes the stamens are changed into 

 petals, sometimes they are abortive, but generally both these and the 

 pistillum are unchanged, and hence there is little difficulty in getting 

 seed from dahlias. Plants that are full of double flowers at one 

 time, when the plant is vigorous, will change and come more single 

 when checked by bad weather, or when the plant begins to ripen and 

 get woody. To return to the raising of seedling double flowers. 

 Roses, Pinks, Carnations, and Ranunculus change the stamens 

 only into petals, and sometimes these are only partially so in 

 very full flowers, and seed is comparatively easy to be obtained 

 from them ; we should, as before observed, select from the fullest 

 and best flowers. In the Anemone the pistils are changed into 

 petals, the stamens unchanged ; seed of these can therefore only be 

 obtained from flowers not perfectly full, or by impregnating flowers 

 nearly single, with a tendency only to fulness, with the anthers of 

 full flowers. In Stocks and Wallflowers both stamens and pistil are 

 changed into petals; seed cannot, therefore, be had from full flowers 

 in these sorts, and the only resource we have is to save seed from 

 those in which a tendency to fulness has commenced, by having a 

 petal or two more than usual. In growing Stocks from seed they 

 will be more likely to be double, if the plants are checked first by a 



