270 PRACTICAL GARDENIXG. 



find another that is more hardy than the rest. "We need not 

 risk all the seed in one season, lest the first frost he severe 

 enough to kill all ; but plant enough to give us a fair chance, 

 and if we lose a year, it cannot be helped ; but this is the 

 only way to acquire that which is so desirable — a hardier race 

 than we have already obtained. One step that we are told 

 belongs rather to hybridizing than to this department, has 

 been decidedly made, bordering on a hardy race of cauli- 

 flowers, — a kmd of brocoli that so nearly resembles the 

 cauliflower, as to be frec[uently sold for it ; but those who are 

 at all acquainted with plants can see the diff'erence at once. 

 It was said to be a hybrid between the cauliflower and the 

 brocoli, but whether it is so, or a sport of nature in the first 

 instance, is immaterial In looking to those plants that are 

 every year raised from seed, such as the dahlia, it has never 

 been an object to obtain them hardy. The form of the flower 

 being the only point in which raisers are interested, they 

 never look among the seedhngs to observe whether one stands 

 more frost than another ; perhaps, if they did, they would 

 find here and there one which was not so much affected as 

 the rest, and by saving seed from them, it is possible they 

 might get others still more able to stand the cold ; but as 

 those are prized most which stray the furthest from their 

 single original, and those which are furthest removed being 

 generally the most tender, we need hardly wonder that among 

 the thousands which have been cultivated for their beauty and 

 doubleness, there is no perceptible difference in their capacity 

 to stand frost. The potato is now being raised from seed in 

 large quantities, and new varieties are offered to our notice 

 every year : let those who raise seedlings plant some of each 

 in autumn, and take their chance ; they are sure to come up 

 before the spring frosts are all gone, if the winter be at aU 

 mild. Instead of earthing them up, or giving them the least 

 protection, let them show how they can stand the spring frosts, 

 and if one sort suffers less than the rest, be assured it is an 

 advance ; and that, whether it be good or bad in other respects, 

 it is the one from which seed should be saved to pursue the 

 object of attaining a more hardy kind. In short, no matter 

 what we desire to attain, every trifling advance must be taken 

 advantage of and improved. As to attempting to change the 

 nature of a plant which is propagated from its own wood, that 

 is, from cuttings, layers, buds, or grafting, it is an idle fancy, 



