106 STUDIES IN GARDENING 



are described as "suitable only for botanical collec- 

 tions"; which means that the ordinary gardener 

 throws them on the rubbish heap if he cannot give 

 them away to a friend. 



It is by considerations of this kind that the hunger 

 for novelties may be tamed. But even the poor gar- 

 dener is not cut off from them altogether, for he can 

 often buy their seeds cheaply enough; and then, if 

 they turn out to be rubbish, he can throw them away 

 with the consolation that he has spent little upon 

 them except the labour of raising them. Seeds, in- 

 deed, are the mainstay of the poor gardener. If he 

 will only raise his plants from seed, he can soon stock 

 a large garden with beautiful flowers at the cost of a 

 few shillings; and if he has a piece of spare ground 

 which he can use for the trial of seedlings, in a few 

 years by judicious selection he will be able to raise for 

 himself specimens of many plants as fine as the finest 

 florists' varieties, and even finer, for he will be able 

 to consult his own taste in the development of them. 

 It is strange, indeed, how few people raise perennial 

 plants from seed; and the only explanation can be 

 that it never occurs to them to do so. They are ready 

 to spend time and trouble in raising annuals and 

 biennials, because it is the custom; but they are in 

 the habit of buying perennial plants, and they con- 

 tinue to do so, although many of them can be raised 

 from seed just as easily as any biennial, and will flower 

 just as soon after the seeds are sown. One could make 

 a long list of perennial plants that every one ought 



