THE CULTURE OF FLOWERS 



FROM SEEDS 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 



WE have seen within the past few years many useful applications 

 of the principles, as well as the work, of the florists to the 

 general decoration of the English garden. Our commonest flowers 

 have partaken of the improvement, of which the Aster, Stock, Phlox, 

 Poppy, and Mignonette afford striking examples. We have but to 

 look through the horticultural picture-books of forty or fifty years 

 ago to become convinced that a splendid revolution has been accom- 

 plished. 



It is interesting to note that while the florists are concentrating 

 their attention on such subjects as the Auricula, the Carnation, the 

 Pelargonium, and the Gladiolus, they are abandoning some of their 

 old favourites, or at all events altering their ways in accordance with 

 their altered views in respect of them. It is not long since immense 

 pains were taken to perpetuate named varieties of Primulas, Cinerarias, 

 Antirrhinums, Gloxinias, Pansies, Lobelias, Verbenas, and other 

 subjects that gave trouble out of proportion to results. These and 

 kindred subjects are still grown to name, and prized for quality, as 

 we hope and believe they ever will be, for the standards of quality 

 must be maintained and advanced. But for the general work of the 

 country a better method has been developed, and the need for an abun- 

 dance of beautiful flowers is, in respect of many of the subjects, readily 

 met by a simple process of growing them from seeds, instead of the 

 laborious mode of perpetuation by cuttings. In no one department 

 of floriculture has there been accomplished a more remarkable 



