230 FLOWER GARDENING 



American catalogues would cost from six to ten 

 dollars for the seed alone, while one English list 

 the prices run higher totals above thirty dollars. 



It would be a pleasant task to grow all strains 

 in all colors, if only the fittest were intended to sur- 

 vive in the end. Completeness, however, is not 

 everything to a collection of flowers; it might be 

 subspecializ-ed to great advantage, even going so 

 far as to reject, say, all save a certain strain of 

 China asters. A hobby that gives you the reputa- 

 tion of growing the finest Early Market, Ostrich 

 Plume or late branching asters for miles around is 

 certainly something. Just now the single China 

 aster, which is an intentional reversion toward the 

 original species (Callistephus sinensis}, offers a fas- 

 cinating subject for a restricted flower hobby. This 

 new race has a grace that the double kinds lack and, 

 both for bedding and cutting, the pink, mauve and 

 white kinds are exceeding beautiful acquisitions. 

 With the bold golden center, the crimson is at least 

 a better mixer than the unfriendly double of the 

 same shade. 



The other extreme of flowers hobbies is concen- 

 tration on a genus rather than on a single species. 

 In many cases this, taken literally, might be the 

 despair of even the largest botanical gardens, let 

 alone the amateur; not only do numbers sometimes 

 mount up appallingly, but a genus may be so distrib- 

 uted geographically as to render it next to impossi- 

 ble to keep a complete representation flourishing in 

 a given group of outdoor and indoor gardens. For- 



