'with the Results of some Expefunciits. il9 



kind, the question arises, By what means did such flowers come 

 to exist at first ? 



Of late years, it has been stated that Dr. Graham of Edin- 

 burgh gave it as his opinion, that, in order to have double 

 stocks, it is only necessary to sow and rear the plants upon 

 ^n exceedingly rich soil, such as the pulverised material of 

 old hot-beds, &c. By this mode of treatment, I suppose it is 

 presumed that the plants shall receive such a surfeit of alimentary 

 matter as will cause a departure from the natural way by which 

 their various organs are formed, and their functions regulated. 

 The high authority whence this theory was said to emanate 

 secured it from me a fair trial ; but the experiment failed com- 

 pletely. My after experience points out a cause of treatment 

 the opposite to that of Dr. Graham, 1 have found that, the more 

 plants intended to save seed from are checked in their luxu- 

 riance, the greater is the chance of success. Every florist must 

 have observed that all the stunted-growing kinds of annual stock 

 are more productive of double flowers than are the rambling- 

 growing sorts ; and that, in both cases, the proportion of doubles is 

 greater from seed that is saved in an exceedingly dry season, 

 when the growth is less luxuriant. From this and other circum- 

 stances wliich have come under my notice, I think there are 

 grounds for questioning whether the agency of any of the afore- 

 mentioned theories is in the remotest degree connected with the 

 producing of double blossoms. 



The longer I consider this subject, the less I feel disposed to 

 trust in the efficacy either of the theory of contact or of alimentary 

 surfeit; the true cause, I think, is more likely to be detected by 

 properly tracing that striking analogy which subsists between 

 vegetable and animal creation. This analogy is stronger than is 

 generally supposed ; and, therefore, if we would arrive at correct 

 conclusions regarding vegetable physiology, we would do well to 

 keep constantly in view the relative position which the subjects 

 under consideration may occupy in the scale of creation. Plants 

 are dependent on air and nutriment as well as animals : they are 

 furnished with numerous organs, suited almost to an animated ex- 

 istence; these are skin, pores, glands, hairs, bristles, flesh, or fibre : 

 they have organs for respiration, with veins and arteries, and a cir- 

 culating fluid traverses the whole. This fluid is at times held in 

 excess by some trees; when bleeding, or an operation equivalent 

 thereto, may be practised with propriety. Ringing the bark of fruit 

 trees, and shortening their roots to bring them into bearing, are 

 here alluded to; by which process, if a copious discharge is not 

 effected visibly, still a determination of sap to the head is pre- 

 vented : this fluid adds annually to the bulk and strength of 

 the vegetable structure ; which, as with animals, the better it is 

 fed, the better it flourishes. Nor does the analogy stop here : 



1 i 



