GROUPS OF GARDEN FLOWERS 29 



for sale. They arose in this way : In 1880 I noticed, in a waste corner 

 of my garden abutting on the fields, a patch of the common Wild Field 

 Poppy (Papaver Rhceas), one solitary flower of which had a very narrow 

 edge of white. This one flower I marked, and saved the seed of it alone. 

 Next year out of perhaps two hundred plants I had four or five on which 

 all the flowers were edged. The best of these were marked and the seed 

 saved, and so for several years, the flowers all the while getting a larger 

 infusion of white to tone down the red until they arrived at quite pale 

 pink, and one plant absolutely pure white. I then set myself to change 

 the black central portions of the flowers from black to yellow or white, 

 and having at last fixed a strain with petals varying in colour from the 

 brightest scarlet to pure white, with all shades of pink between and all 

 varieties of flakes and edged flowers also, but all having yellow or white 

 stamens, anthers, and pollen, and a white base. ... My ideal is to get 

 a yellow P. Rhceas, and I have already obtained many distinct shades 

 of salmon. The Shirley Poppies have thus been obtained simply by 

 selection and elimination. By ' selection ' I mean the saving seed only 

 from selected flowers, and by ' elimination ' the instant and total eradica- 

 tion of any plant that bears inferior flowers. . . . Let it be noticed that 

 the Shirley Poppies (i) are single ; (2) always have a white base, with 

 (3) yellow or white stamens, anthers, or pollen ; (4) never have the 

 smallest particle of black about them. Double poppies and poppies with 

 black centres may be greatly admired, but they are not Shirley Poppies. 

 It is rather interesting to reflect that the gardens of the whole world 

 rich man's and poor man's alike are to-day furnished with Poppies 

 which are the direct descendants of one single capsule of seed raised in 

 the garden of Shirley Vicarage so lately as August 1880. Poppy seed 

 should be sown in the autumn or in the spring, sowing very thinly because 

 the seed is small, and thinning out the seedlings to fully six inches apart. 

 Fine flowers in abundance and over a long season can never be expected 

 unless the seed is sown thinly, the seedlings well thinned out, and the 

 dying flowers picked off to prevent seed forming and weakening the 

 plant." Any good garden soil. 



Primroses and Polyanthuses. The Primrose in its many forms 

 is a flower for all gardens. All the varieties are derived from the wild 

 Primula vulgaris of grassy banks and copse. Raising seedlings is a very 

 interesting pastime, and the seed germinates readily when sown in March 

 or April in a cold frame, or even in the open ground, but when in a 

 frame the seedlings are more under control. Miss Jekyll, in Wood 

 and Garden, alludes to the beautiful bunch Primroses, which are such 

 excellent garden plants, as follows : " The big yellow and white 

 bunch Primroses are delightful room flowers, beautiful, and of sweetest 

 scent. When full grown the flower-stalks are ten inches long and 

 more. Among the seedlings there are always a certain number that 

 are worthless. These are pounced upon as soon as they show their 

 bloom, and cut up for greenery to go with the cut flowers, leaving the 

 root-stalk with its middle foliage and cutting away the roots and any 

 rough outside leaves." And at p. 216, in a charming description of the 



