xxxvui INTRODUCTION 



hybridize for himself if he will take the trouble, and 

 with the plants just mentioned it is quite easy to do; 

 but in many cases nature will hybridize only too 

 readily for him, so that he has but to save the seed 

 of any variety that pleases him and to go on raising 

 seedlings and pulling up all inferior ones until he gets 

 plants that seem to approach his standard of perfec- 

 tion. If this were done intelligently and systemat- 

 ically by amateurs all over the country, there would 

 soon be a vast improvement in our garden flowers; 

 and no doubt the vagaries of the florists would be 

 checked. They provide novelties because novelties 

 are popular; and they work more or less at random 

 because there is no certain taste to direct them. The 

 remedy is in the hands of amateurs who in some cases 

 can show what they want by producing it for them- 

 selves, and in other cases can enforce a right standard 

 by buying only plants which conform to that stand- 

 ard. 



We are all too ready to think that every flower 

 must be beautiful, whether produced by nature or 

 by the florist; and we are ready to think that every 

 kind of garden must be beautiful, if only it contains 

 an abundance of flowers. The gardener should grow 

 his flowers well — that goes without saying. But he 

 should choose them upon clear and rational principles 

 of taste, and he should plan the garden, of which 

 they are to be the ornaments, upon the same prin- 

 ciples. 



