AUBICULi. STAGE. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

 THE FLORIST-FLOWER GARDEN. 



1650. Floriculture assumes to itself the care of a section of our oldest 

 and most charming flowers which it claims as its own ; and truly it has shown 

 itself not unworthy of the charge, for off one flower alone, — the ranunculus, 

 it has established upwards of a thousand named and truly beautiful 

 varieties. The florist's flower-garden comprises, besides the dahlia, hollyhock, 

 and chrysanthemum, which we have treated as autumnal-flowering plants, — 

 I. Tulip ; II. the Polyanthus ; III. Auricula ; IV. Heai-tsease or Pansy ; 

 V. the Anemone ; VI. Cai-nation ; VII. Pink ; VIII. Picotee ; IX. Hyacinth. 

 Not satisfied with these old favourites, however, the florist claims all of our 

 new importations which will "sport," as he is pleased to term it, into well- 

 marked varieties. In this manner he has laid violent hands on the rose, the 

 hollyhock, the fuchsia, cinerarias, the geranium, and some others of our most 

 beautiful garden flowers. Not, however, without resistance has he been able 

 to call these gems of the flower-garden his own. Many there are who deny his 

 right to divest the wild and beautiful rose of its graceful habit of growth 

 and its flower of fragrance, with its innumerable folds and volutes as presented 

 by nature ; into a stifi" formal florist's flower ; or transform the graceful droop- 

 ing habit of the fuchsia into a series of circles and mathematical forms. He 

 modestly tells us, however, that all flowering-plants, with certain distinguish- 

 ing characteristics, come within his domain. These characteristics are — 



Continuous-Blooming. — For which scarlet geraniums, verbenas, 

 heliotropes, and calceolarias, are given as examples. 



Elegance of Habit. — As in the rose, the fuchsia, and many 

 evergreens. 



2m 



