176 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



and tlien have to be got into tliese vans and brouglit lionie 

 again, the same day or night, as the case may be ; for if the 

 branches were in their natural state, playing freely in the air, 

 they would be frayed to destruction by the mere action of 

 rubbing against each other. But we must own, at the same 

 time, that a plant mth every branch and bloom constrained 

 in its place, and bound mechanically to some formal sup- 

 port, is no more fit to compare T\ith one fairly grown and 

 unconstrained, than an artificial plant would be with a real 

 one. It is to the ambition of growers to produce enormous 

 plants that we trace the great change that has taken place in 

 pubhc exhibitions. 



There is as much difference in a plant grown properly, and 

 standing undisturbed in its place at home, and one gi-o^vn 

 artificially in an iron cage, as it were, and all the branches 

 and blooms bent about so as to come to the outside surface, as 

 there is between the sham flower and the real one ; and he 

 who for one moment gives himself the trouble to think of the 

 formal, stiff, and unnatural shape of the plants at a show, and 

 the beautiful free growth of the specimens in a private col- 

 lection, or a nursery where there is no showing, will not 

 hesitate to pronounce those at a show altogether spoiled for 

 the lovers of plants. JSTevertheless, those at a show form 

 masses of flowers, which in some measure compensate for 

 multitudes of wooden legs and iron bird-cages. We have seen 

 this for years getting worse. Hill, of Hammersmith, used to 

 exhibit geraniums without sticks, and they were beautiful, far 

 before anytliing we have in the present day as specimens of 

 growth, though the prodigies of the present period rank far 

 higher as specimens of mechanical ingenuity and skill. The 

 system is altered ; ^Ir. Hill, if he were showing now, would 

 stand no chance against wooden legs : he would not show half 

 the number of flowers without dramng his plants, as they are 

 always drawn now, and putting legs to them because the 

 drawn plants cannot support themselves. We never approved 

 of this perversion of garden craft, but we must take things as 

 we find them. The best showers we have, acknowledge that 

 props are objectionable, but necessary while size remains so 

 captivating as it is at present; and he is the best artist, we 

 cannot say gardener, who can make his props the least con- 

 spicuous. 



ITie cultivation of plants for show, then, involves an early 



