204 PEINCIPLES OF GARDENING. [CH. VI. 



animal, no-^ exists, which did not come as such 

 immediately from the hand of the Creator." 



Hybridizing, aided by cultivation, gives birth to 

 those splendid objects of the gardener's care, gene- 

 rally designated double flowers, which are such beau- 

 teous ornaments of our borders and parterres. To 

 the uninitiated it seems incredible that the double 

 moss-rose should be a legitimate descendant from 

 the briai' ; neither do the flowers of the Fair maid of 

 France appear less impossible derivatives from those 

 of the Ranunculus platanifoUus ; nor Bachelor's 

 buttons from the common buttercup, yet so they 

 are. Double flowers, as they are popularly called, 

 are more correctly discriminated as the full flower, 

 the multiplicate flower, and the proliferous flower. 



The full-flower is a flower with its petals aug- 

 mented in number by the total transformation into 

 them of its stamens and its pistils. One-petiilled 

 flowers rarely undergo this metamorphosis ; but it is 

 very common in those having many petals, as in the 

 carnation, ranunculus, rose, and poppy. But this 

 is not the only mode in which a flower becomes full : 

 for, in the columbine {Aquilegia) it is eff'ected in 

 three difl'erent ways, \az., by the multiplication of 

 the petals to the exclusion of the nectaries ; by the 

 multiplication of the nectaries to the exclusion of 

 the petals ; and by the multiplication of the necta- 

 ries whilst the usual petals remain. Piadiated 



