56 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



get full of roots, keep them drier and cooler, and give 

 plenty of air, which will soon cause flowers to appear ; then 

 select plants with best flowers, rub every flower-bud off 

 them, fresh pot, disentangling the roots a little as you 

 proceed, and grow them on as advised above; and what 

 you lose in time you will make up in selectness." These 

 directions provide for a check by allowing the plants to 

 become pot-bound, and for another check by the process 

 of rubbing the flower-buds off, so as to compel the plants 

 to produce another crop. And what is the result ? Tall, 

 attenuated plants, with poor flowers on the side stems, and 

 no fine flowers anywhere. We see numerous wretched bal- 

 sams at flower shows that have been grown in this way. 

 Now, let us ask Nature about it, and her reply will be that 

 the finest flowers are the first produced, and appear in the 

 centre of the plant ; therefore the removal of the buds is 

 a mistake, and the imposition of any check is a mistake, 

 and there is no balsam so beautiful as the one that has 

 been generously grown and allowed to flower at its own 

 time and in its own way. 



