320 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



c^arden, which should be neatness itself, should be kept up in 

 the planting. A pink-bed on one side the path should not 

 be 023posed by a pansy-bed on the other ; nothing would look 

 worse, althousrh Ave have often observed the florist to be too 

 much taken up with the flowers, individually, to look at his 

 garden as a whole, and therefore in too many instances he is 

 neat only in the beds which occupy his attention for the time 

 being. His pinks, pansies, tulips, and other flowers occupy- 

 ing the beds, may be neat and clean, but the beds unoccupied 

 with flowers are too often neglected and overrun with weeds, 

 whereas they should be the cleanest part of the garden, on 

 account of their being empty and having nothing to set them 

 off. A space must be cut ofij and put, as it were, out of sight, 

 by planting, or by some other means ; for the florist must 

 have his heaps of composts and manures, his shades, glasses, 

 and pots somewhere out of sight. All the formality and uni- 

 formity in the world mil not serve him, unless he can put 

 what may be fairly called his rubbish out of sight. 



We would now instal the florist in his ample garden, 

 formal though it be, with a tolerable collection of all the 

 principal florists' flowers ; and as there are hundreds of pro- 

 fessional gardeners who do not know how to cultivate florists' 

 flowers, and thousands who desire to know more than they do, 

 we cannot do better than follow up our formal gardening with 

 some instructions upon that most formal of all gardening, the 

 cultivation of florists' flowers ; and we begin by answering 

 the question of what are florists' flowers ? 



FLOWEES A^D PLAJS'TS. 



Florists' Flowers are those which have by high culture and 

 careful seeding yielded new varieties of better character than 

 they were originally produced from, and which have been multi- 

 plied when improved, whereby any distinct variety has been 

 perpetuated under a name. Flowers of which the raisers of new 

 and better varieties have thrown away the worst until they 

 have approached a liigh standard. Flowers which are con- 

 stantly improved upon and abandoned for the better, until 

 they have strayed entirely away from their original form and 

 character, and can be distinguished by name, and recognised 

 by the florist, in any part of the world, though in some cases 

 there are many hundred varieties. Therefore it follows, that 



