FLORAL FASHION. 



FASHION is proverbially variable, and its dictates always influence 

 a large proportion of a community, particularly in regard to the 

 ordinary customs of life ; the fashion of dress is all important, 

 but there is also a fashion in walking, talking, and writing, that 

 varies with the age and gives distinctive characters to every 

 generation. It is not, however, to these matters alone that 

 fashion is confined, for it has in modern times extended its in- 

 fluence to the plant world, and the floral favourites of one period 

 have been proportionately neglected at another, being superseded 

 by some in which more pleasing qualities have been discovered 

 or imagined. The changeability has not been so great or so 

 frequent in the latter case as in the former, but it has in several 

 instances been equally unreasonable. Who has not heard of the 

 notorious Tulip mania, which caused thousands of persons in 

 Holland under the influence of a speculative madness to risk all 

 their possessions in the purchase of bulbs that had acquired a 

 grossly fictitious value ? Like other bubbles of a similar 

 character, it burst at last and ruined innumerable homes, but 

 this was a strikingly exceptional case, and happily we have had 

 nothing of the same nature in the plant world since. Many 

 families of plants have risen successively in favour, but nevgr to 

 such an absurd and injurious height as the Tulips; and i^^gh , 

 surprisingly high prices have ,been obtained 'for popular or rare 

 plants, there has, with few exceptions, been more commercial 

 solidity and less gambling attending the transactions. 



Heaths, for instance, some years ago held an important position 

 amongst the most appreciated plants, rare species and beautiful 

 varieties realising prices that would now be thought ridicule tisf" 

 but their descent from general favour was very gradual, and 

 except in the case of dealers who retained large stocks in ex- 

 pectation of a return to the former demand, little loss was 

 occasioned. Hard-wooded plants, including many of extreme 

 beauty from the Southern Hemisphere, have similarly been petted 

 and neglected ; the Proteas and Banksias were at one time the 

 wonders of many plant stoves, and Cactuses have also had a 



