302 nature's hints to florists. 



tables? Here is a fact M'liich speaks volumes. Nature scatters her 

 beauties in abundance, but all things have individually only a small 

 share ; man is endeavouring to collect the shares of many subjects into 

 one individual. Agriculturists obtain, by cross-breeding and high 

 feeding, the good points of several animals in one ; the gardener ob- 

 tains in a single fruit the good qualities of several ; the florist rests not 

 until he has monopolised in a single flower the good qualities that have 

 been divided among many. Take any popular subject for an illus- 

 tration : to the Rhododendron family Nature has been bountiful, but 

 her favours have not been lavished on one ; to R. ponticum she has 

 given the valuable quality of hardiness, but the flower is mean, the 

 foliage poor ; to arboreum she has given a brilliance of colour not to 

 be surpassed. The florist has, by means of his art and science, so 

 cross-bred these two kinds as to have obtained in one individual both 

 the hardiness and the brilliant colour ; and having attained this object, 

 he is permitted to multiply the new branch of the family to any extent, 

 and the subject is established in perpetuity. Plant out one of the in- 

 dividuals wherever it will grow, and it will not degenerate, as man calls 

 it ; it will not revert to its former ill-shaped, mean-looking flower and 

 foliage, on the one hand, nor will it lose its hardiness, on the other. 

 But man is permitted to go farther than this ; by a different mode of 

 culture he is allowed to increase the vigour of a plant, and, by seeding 

 from it in the state of excitement, to produce a disposition to sport ; to 

 select from the progeny such as deviate from the natural habit, and, 

 according to his finite notions, are improved in form, texture, or colour, 

 and by bits from the plant itself to multiply the same thing to any ex- 

 tent ; but as this is no longer concentrating the individual beauties 

 which Nature had already supplied, but creating out of her abundant 

 po\\ers new ones contrary to the original properties of the plant, the 

 instant man relaxes his watchfulness, and withholds that management 

 which has produced the change, he loses the character which he has 

 established. But we have yet one feature in this change that rarely 

 enters the mind of the thoughtless. The change is wrought ; the indi- 

 vidual variety is multiplied, and passes into the hands of the idle, as 

 well as the industrious ; the former puts his pet plant into the ground, 

 and leaves it there, uncared for, unattended ; the latter continues the 

 care Avhich produced the change. The idle one sees Nature claiming 

 her wandering subject, and the flower go back as near as may be to tiie 

 original simple form ; the industrious florist preserves his in all its 

 beauty and integrity. To bring this home by example : the Pansy has 

 been changed from its native deformity — if it be not impious to call 

 anything in nature deformed — to a bold, circular, velvety, rich flower ; 

 continue propagating by cuttings and rich feeding, and it remains true; 

 plant it out on poor, natural soil, and leave it untouclied, and it will 

 go back to a form, and diminish to a size, that no florist would tolerate 

 in his garden. Pinks, Carnations, and Picotees are in tliis particular 

 the same; place tiiem in natural ground, and leave them there, and you 

 will see them diminish in size and doubleness, and get worse in form, 

 until they become like wild ones, instead of garden varieties. Again, 

 sow seed from any of these highly-bred flowers ; Nature struggles so 



