S94 FLOWERS. CiiAi'. X. 



way and began to sport into those changes which now so deh'ght 

 ^5." 189 'jjjg flowers have been greatly ruodified in shape from a 

 flat to a globular form. Anemone and ranunculus-like races,"" 

 which difler in the form and arrangement of the florets, have 

 arisen ; also dwarfed races, one of which is only eighteen inches in 

 height. The seeds vary much in size. The jDetals are uniformly 

 coloured or tipped or striped, and present an almost infinite 

 diversity of tints. Seedlings of fourteen different colours ^''^ have 

 been raised from the same plant ; yet, as Mr. Sabine has remarkefl, 

 "many of the seedlings follow their parents in colour." The period 

 of flowering has been considerably hastened, and this has prol)ably 

 been effected by continued selection. Salisbury, writing IbOy, 

 says that they then flowered from September to November ; in 

 1828 some new dwarf varieties began flowering in June;'^'- and 

 Mr. Grieve informs me that the dwarf purple Zelinda in his garden 

 is in full bloom by the middle of June and sometimes even earlier. 

 Slight constitutional diff'erences have been observed between certain 

 varieties : thus, some kinds succeed much better in one part of 

 England than in another ;^''^ and it has been noticed that some 

 varieties require much more moisture than others."* 



Such flowers as the carnation, common tulip, and hyacinth, which 

 are believed to be descended, each from a single wild form, present 

 inniimerable varieties, differing almost exclusively in the size, form, 

 and colour of the flowers. These and some other anciently culti- 

 vated plants which have been long propagated by oflsets, pipings, 

 bulbs, &c., become so excessively variable, that almost each new 

 plant raised from seed forms a new variety, " all of wliich to 

 describe particularly," as old Gerarde wrote in 1597, " were to roll 

 Sisyphus's stone, or to number the sands." 



jHyaciuth {Hyacinthus vrientalis). — It may, however, be worth 

 while to give a short account of this plant, which was introduced 

 into England in 1596 from the Levant."'' The petals of the original 

 flower, says Mr. Paul, were narrow, wrinkled, pointed, and of a 

 flimsy texture ; now they are broad, smooth, solid, and I'ounded. 

 The erectness, breadth, and length of the whole spike, and the size 

 of the flowers, have all increased. The colours have been intensified 

 and diversified, Gerarde, in 1.j97, enumerates four, and Parkinson, 



"' 'Transact, Hort. Soc.,' vol. iii., ^^* M. Faivre has given an inte- 



1820. p. 225. resting account of the Euccessive 



"° Loudon's ' Gardener's Mag.,' vol. variations of the .Chinese primrose, 



vi., 1830, p, 77. since its introduction into Europe 



"" Loudon's ' Encyclop. of Garden- about the year 1820: 'Revue des 



ino-,' p. 1035. Cours Scientifiques,' June, 1869, p. 



^'^- 'Transact. Hort. Soc.,* vol. i. 428. 



p. 91; and Loudon's 'Gardener's >" The best and fullest account of 



Ma?.,' vol. iii.. 1828, p. 179. this plant which I have met with is 



1^3 Mr. Wildman, in ' Gardener's by a famous horticulturist, Mr. Paul, 



Chron.,' 1843, p. 87. ' Cottage Gur- of Waltham, in the 'Gardener's 



doner,' April 8, 1856, p, 33, Chronicle,' 1834, p. 342. 



