hy Lindlei/s Theory of Horticulture, 44,7 



the flower is not only produced larger, but the crude sap has a 

 tendency to lower the state of existence, and the stamens and 

 pistils being higher in the scale of existence, are reduced to the 

 more inferior condition of petals. Sometimes the scale of exist- 

 ence is so far reduced, that what had been originally the nucleus 

 of a branch, but elevated by elaboration acting on the vital energy 

 into the state of petals, stamens, and pistils, is not only reduced 

 to petals and become double, but will shoot again into a branch, 

 as we have had instances with the Due d'Orleans, Attelaine de 

 Bourbon, Brown's Superbe, and other roses this season. In the 

 work before us, the instances of the pear producing a branch from 

 the centre of the flower; the double cherry, a leaf from the pistil 

 in the centre of the blossom; and the changing of the petals into 

 leaves in the rose tulip, &c., are all illustrative and confirmatory 

 of what has been said. The instance mentioned of the double 

 Barbadoes lily bearing seeds on the petals is, perhaps, the 

 greatest aberration that has ever occurred ; it is more common to 

 have bulbs formed. The double iychnis diurnahas the stamens 

 changed into red petals, and the pistil into green leaves, and the 

 quantity of each greatly increased. In the rhododendron, the 

 flowers are produced from the terminal bud of the shoot ; if the 

 summer and autumn have been warm, the bud swells larger, and 

 we have a branch of flowers instead of a branch of leaves the 

 ensuing spring; but it is always difficult to say, till the bud is 

 evolved, whether we shall have leaves or flowers. In raising 

 double or full flowers from seed, therefore, we should carefully 

 guide our attempts by experience; in procuring the seed, we 

 must get it from the most double flowers we can, as the progeny 

 always bears more or less resemblance to the parent. In the 

 dahlia, the flower is not^ strictly speaking, full; it belongs to the 

 compound class, in which a great number of florets are ar- 

 ranged on one common receptacle; in single dahlias, and other 

 flowers of this class, the ray or outer row of florets has the 

 petals fully evolved and coloured ; in the florets of the centre or 

 disk, the petal is only in the state of a small tube, inside of 

 which the stamens are situated. Rich cultivation forces these 

 tubes to assume the state of coloured petals; sometimes tubular, 

 as in the quilled dahlias ; and sometimes flosculose or flattened, 

 as in others : sometimes the stamens are changed into petals ; 

 sometimes they are abortive ; but generally, both these and the 

 pistillum are unchanged, and hence there is little difficulty in 

 getting seed from dahlias. Though the way in which dahlias 

 come to be full is thus different from roses, &c., yet luxuriance 

 of growth is here also the apparent cause, the most double 

 flower is always got from the most vigorous plant. In cold sum- 

 mers we have seen the Glory of Plymouth get perfectly full to 

 the centre, by introducing a branch into the inside of a vinery, 



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