•^ The Scented (jar den {%£ 



A path bordered with masses of polyanthus of every 

 colour is not only a joy to behold but looks so character- 

 istic of Britain. 



Indeed of all garden flowers there are few which are 

 more truly of pure British stock than polyanthus and 

 bunch primroses. In an authoritative article on the 

 origin of these flowers Mr. Miller Christy pointed out 

 that though they have been favourite garden flowers for 

 nearly three centuries it is impossible to identify the 

 plant we know as Polyanthus with any plant described in 

 the works of the earlier herbalists (Fuchs, Turner, 

 Dodoens, Matthiolus, de l'Obel, etc.), or even in Gerard 

 and Parkinson. This, however, he acknowledges, is far 

 from being conclusive evidence that the polyanthus as 

 we know it was unknown then, owing to the vague 

 nomenclature then employed. Early in the eighteenth 

 century there was a polyanthus mania, and Philip 

 Miller, writing in 1 760, stated that * in some parts of 

 England they are so much esteemed as to sell for a guinea 

 a root ; so that there may be still a much greater variety 

 raised, as there are so many persons engaged in the culture 

 of this flower.' At the end of the eighteenth century 

 auricula and polyanthus shows were as common as rose 

 shows to-day. 



The interesting point which Mr. Miller Christy em- 

 phazises in conclusion of his theories as to the possible 

 origin of the polyanthus is that whether this plant is an 

 improved cultivated form of the hybrid between a red 

 primrose and a red cowslip, or whether there may possibly 

 be a slight foreign strain owing to being crossed with the 

 Eastern red-flowered primrose (which is more brightly 

 coloured than our native red primrose), the polyanthus is 

 40 



