GROWING NAMED VARIETIES 97 



out all seedlings until he finds one especially promising to 

 be saved. 



It is well worth while for every young gardener to do at 

 least a little of this selection of seed, for it will add greatly to 

 the interest of his garden work, and will enable him to grow 

 better crops of flowers or vegetables. All that is necessary is 

 to keep watch for the finest and largest of the earliest blos- 

 soms or fruits. Then mark them in some way, as by tying 

 a string around the stem, and save the seed to sow another 

 season. 



GROWING NAMED VARIETIES 



There are many reasons why it is worth while to grow 

 named varieties of the flowering plants. In the first place, 

 our enjoyment of any subject depends very largely upon the 

 knowledge we have of it. The person to whom " a primrose 

 by the river's brim" is but a yellow primrose like thousands 

 of others, cannot appreciate the beauty of the blossom as 

 can the one whose eye has been trained to see the distinctive 

 characteristics of different species, or even of different plants 

 of the same species. In the same way, the florist to whom 

 an aster is but an aster or a sweet pea but a sweet pea, cannot 

 get the enjoyment from growing these flowers that the one 

 gets who knows by name the varieties of each, and can tell 

 at a glance whether a given specimen is typical of its variety 

 or not. When you go into a street-car crowded with strangers 

 whose names you do not know, your sensations are different 

 from those you have when you go into a similar car filled 

 with friends and acquaintances. So when you go into a 

 garden your delight is always greater when you can call by 

 name a large proportion of its occupants. 



