158 FLOWEBS, 



consequently all such circumstances are favourable to the 

 production of flower buds. 



164. But a richly manured soil; high temperature, with 

 great atmospheric humidity, or an uninterrupted flow of sap, 

 are all causes of excessive vigour, and are consequently un- 

 favourable to the production of flower-buds. 



165. There is a tendency In many flowers to enlarge, to 

 alter their colours, or to change their appearance by a trans- 

 formation and multiplication of their parts, whenever they 

 have been raised from seeds for several generatisns, or domes • 

 ticated. 



166. The causes of this tendency are probably various, but 

 being entirely unknown, no certain rules for the production 

 of varieties in flowers can be laid down, except by the aid of 

 hybridising (210.) 



167. It often happens that a single branch produces flowers 

 different from those produced on other branches This is 

 technically called a sport. 



168. As every bud on that branch has the same specific 

 vital principle (113.), a bud taken from such a branch will 

 produce an individual, the whole of whose branches will retain 

 the character of the sport. 



169. Consequently, by buds an accidental variety may be 

 made permanent, if the plant that sports be of a firm woody 

 nature. (98.) 



170- As flowers feed upon the prepared sap in their vicinity, 

 the greater the abundance of this prepared food, the more 

 perfect will be their developement. 



171. Or the fewer the flowers on a given branch the more 

 food they will severally have to nourish them, and the more 

 perfect will they be. 



172. The beauty of flowers will therefore be increased either 

 by an abundant supply of food, or by a diminution of their 

 numbers (thinning), or by both. The business of the pruner 

 is to cause these by his operation. 



173. The beauty of flowers depends upon their free exposure 

 to light and air, because it consists in the richness of their 

 colours, and their colours are only formed by the action of 

 those two agents. (281.) 



174. Hence Flowers produced in dark or shady confined 

 situations are either imperfect, or destitute of their habitual 

 size and beauty. \ 



175- Double Flowers are those in which the stamens are 

 transformed into petals ; or in which the latter, or the sepals, 

 are multiplied. They should not be confounded with Proli- 

 ferous (183 ), and Discoid Compound Flowers. (184 - ) 



176. Although no certain rules for the production of double 

 Flowers can be laid down, yet it is probable that those Flow- 

 ers have the greatest tendency to become double, in which 

 the sexes are habitually multiplied. 



