38 THE GREEN-HOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 



ought we to expect from those who have every facility for 

 growing plants to advantage ? 



Instances of this kind might be multiplied, but these 

 must suffice. What has caused this neglect, we are at a 

 loss to say. And another question arises : Can a remedy be 

 found ? We think it can. Let our cultivators, our garden- 

 ers, our amateurs, estimate a plant by its real beauty, value 

 it for its intrinsic merit, and not by the factitious standards 

 of novelty, or dollars and cents. Suppose you have a green- 

 house full of rare plants, but all poor, ill-grown specimens, 

 costly, but not beautiful ; your neighbor has a dozen fine 

 specimen plants, in which Nature, assisted by all the 

 appliances of art and care, has developed a perfection of 

 form, a vigor of growth and foliage, a profusion of flower ; 

 let these all be common, well-known plants fuchsias, 

 azaleas, even verbenas, or other soft-wooded plants : which 

 has approached nearer the true end of floriculture, regard- 

 ing it either as a pleasure or as a science ? Surely he who 

 develops to the best advantage the powers of Nature. But 

 we have taken an extreme case ; there may be as great 

 beauty, and often is, in the new plants as in the old. 

 Some of the introductions of the last few years possess beau- 

 ties of which a short time since we never dreamed. Another 



