xxxii INTRODUCTION 



1813, and by 1830 many varieties approaching the 

 modern Pansy in size and colour and shade were al- 

 ready in existence. But the Viola of gardens, or 

 tufted Pansy, is a creation almost of our own time 

 and a hybrid between the Pansy proper and the Al- 

 pine Viola cornuta. Not much more than a genera- 

 tion ago the Begonia was a plant with insignificant 

 flowers and grown chiefly for its leaves. Now we 

 have Begonias with flowers almost as large as Roses 

 in a great variety of colours. Dahlias have changed 

 the character of their flowers under our eyes. Won- 

 derful things have been done, and are being done, with 

 Larkspurs and Phloxes. There are innumerable new 

 Daffodils, and they increase about every year in size 

 and in brightness and diversity of colour; while there 

 seems to be a promise of new races of Roses utterly 

 surpassing any that we have now both in beauty and 

 in vigour of habit. 1 



But this new power will be attended with new 

 dangers if it is not exercised with discretion; and 

 already we can see what these dangers are. It is a 

 delightful game to make new flowers, but it is not 

 one that should be played wantonly or blindly. It 

 is unfortunate that hybridization should be first prac- 

 tised systematically in an age of very uncertain taste; 

 for there is a danger lest irreparable harm may be done 



1 Certain species of roses recently discovered in China by E. H. Wilson 

 have never been hybridized. When one considers that all the roses we now 

 have are descended from four or five species it is not easy even to imagine 

 the number we may have after bringing in fifteen or twenty new species, 

 crossing those with each other and with those we already know. L. Y. K. 



