230 FLOWER GARDENING 
American catalogues would cost from six to ten 
dollars for the seed alone, while one English list— 
the prices run higher—totals above thirty dollars. 
It would be a pleasant task to grow all strains 
in all colors, if only the fittest were intended to sur- 
vive in the end. Completeness, however, is not 
everything to a collection of flowers; it might be 
subspecialized to great advantage, even going so 
far as to reject, say, all save a certain strain of 
China asters. A hobby that gives you the reputa- 
tion of growing the finest Early Market, Ostrich 
Plume or late branching asters for miles around is 
certainly something. Just now the single China 
aster, which is an intentional reversion toward the 
original species (Callistephus sinensis), offers a fas- 
cinating subject for a restricted flower hobby. This 
new race has a grace that the double kinds lack and, 
both for bedding and cutting, the pink, mauve and 
white kinds are exceeding beautiful acquisitions. 
With the bold golden center, the crimson is at least 
a better mixer than the unfriendly double of the 
same shade. 
The other extreme of flowers hobbies is concen- 
tration on a genus rather than on a single species. 
In many cases this, taken literally, might be the 
despair of even the largest botanical gardens, let 
alone the amateur; not only do numbers sometimes 
mount up appallingly, but a genus may be so distrib- 
uted geographically as to render it next to impossi- 
ble to keep a complete representation flourishing in 
a given group of outdoor and indoor gardens. For- 
