146 BRECK'S BOOK OF FLOWERS. 



To these might be added numerous other fine varieties, as 

 they are without number. 



RAISING PHLOXES FROM SEED. 



Some fine seedlings have appeared in my own garden within 

 the two last years, which have attracted considerable attention 

 at the Horticultural Rooms, on account of the largeness and 

 perfection of the flowers, the density of the spikes or corymbs, 

 and the colors. The last season, the first premium for the best 

 ten varieties was awarded to the writer ; six of these were his 

 own seedlings, which competed with a number of stands, most- 

 ly of foreign origin, and that, too, of improved sorts. 



Out of a large number, I have selected and numbered twenty 

 varieties, which I thought worthy of perpetuating, for their su- 

 periority for breeders. It is a fact, that seedlings are sure to 

 produce an abundance of seeds, while those varieties that have 

 long been propagated by cuttings or divisions of the root, soon 

 lose that power. It has proved, in my experience, that there 

 is an improvement in every generation of well selected seed- 

 lings. I have been accustomed to collect all the seedling 

 phloxes raised by my floral friends, and plant them in beds by 

 themselves : thus, I had three or four from my friend, S. Walk- 

 er, Esq., President of the Horticultural Society, some of Mr. 

 Richardson, of Dorchester, others from my old acquaintance, 

 W. E. Carter, late of the Botanic Garden, and a large number 

 of my own. From these the seed was scattered promiscuous- 

 ly, and the young plants were taken up and planted by them- 

 selves, and from a great number of young seedlings my selec- 

 tions were made. Among these are some white, some fine red, 

 two or three variegated ; one mottled, with a red ey^< , and an- 

 other distinctly and regularly striped with a pale-purple on 

 white ground. Their parents being of the later sorts, these, 

 also, correspond in the time of flowering with them, being in 

 perfection about the first of August. I am looking for great 

 improvements in the next brood of seedlings from these new 

 sorts, and think I shall not be disappointed. 



