CHAPTER XXI 



NOVELTY AND VARIETY 



When I look back over thirty years of gardening, I 

 see what extraordinary progress there has been, not 

 only in the introduction of good plants new to general 

 cultivation, but also in the home production of im- 

 proved kinds of old favom-ites. In annual plants 

 alone there has been a remarkable advance. And 

 here again, though many really beautiful things are 

 being brought forward, there seems always to be an 

 undue value assigned to a fresh development, on the 

 score of its novelty. 



Now it seems to me, thcit among the thousands of 

 beautiful things already at hand for garden use, there 

 is no merit whatever in novelty or variety unless the 

 thing new or dififerent is distinctly more beautiful, or 

 in some such way better than an older thing of the 

 same class. 



And there seems to be a general wish among seed 

 growers just now to dwarf all annual plants. Now, 

 when a plant is naturally of a difEuse habit, the fixing 

 of a dwarfer variety may be a distinct gain to horti- 

 culture — it may just make a good garden plant out of 



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