SELECTIONS OF FLOWERING PLANTS FOR THE GARDEN. 29 



ities of floriculture ; or in remote country gardens, not yet 

 reached by steam or electricity. Even in acknowledging an 

 acquaintance with Hollyhocks and China Asters, we do so 

 under a feeling of something like shame at being known to 

 keep such doubtful company. 



" Are these follies to have an end ? Shall we never be wise 

 enough to look upon all flowers as equal ? Do we not yet 

 know that what is called the difference in their attractions, is 

 but a difference in our skill in managing them ; and that they 

 are all endowed with wondrous beauty, varying in kind, but 

 the same in nature ? Most especially must we inquire whether 

 the arts of the cultivator should be limited, as they are, to the 

 domestication of a few fashionable races, to the entire neglect 

 of the ancient inhabitants of the flower-garden ? A Hollyhock 

 is as showy as a Dahlia, infinitely more graceful, much easier 

 to cultivate, as prone to run into varieties, and hardy instead of 

 tender ; yet the lumpish Dahlia is seen everywhere ; socie- 

 ties are formed to admire it and to gamble in it ; and the Hol- 

 lyhock is consigned to a few places, where, as at Shrubland, 

 refined taste still excludes fashionable vulgarity. The Ama- 

 ranths are a race peculiarly suited for rich autumnal decoration, 

 quick-growing, many-sized, and long-enduring, no doubt 

 susceptible of further change ; but they are abandoned for the 

 sake of Petumias and Chrysanthemums. Surely it would be 

 wiser to try to improve those ancient races, which are so well 

 suited to our climate and our purses, than to limit our skill to 

 tampering with the constitutions of the delicate, though bril- 

 liant, strangers that have taken such entire possession of our 

 affections. 



" Let no man say that they are incapable of improvement. 

 Who has tried the experiment ? Who has tried to cross the 

 Prince's Feather with the Cockscomb ? or Love-lies-bleeding 

 with the Tricolor ? or the Bee with the Dwarf Larkspur ? or 

 the Persicaria with the straggling Buckwheat, (Polygonum 

 divaricatum) ? or the Indian Pink with the Carnation ? or the 

 Marigold with the Coreopsis ? Until these trials have been 



