CHAPTER IV 



SOME OLD FAVOURITES AND NEW 



Exactly what influences favour in flowers, or 

 indeed in most other things, it is hard to say ; 

 no Dutch bulb-grower ever attempts to do so. 

 It may interest the leisurely student of mankind 

 to discover the causes and trends of fashion, 

 but the grower asks little or nothing about it, 

 he merely accepts the evidence of his carefully- 

 kept books, and the character of the attention 

 given to some certain flower or groups of 

 flowers at the shows, and sets himself to supply 

 the demand that has arisen, or is about to arise. 

 He may regret, if he is an old man with old- 

 fashioned tastes, that popular liking has deserted 

 Ranunculus asiaticus. He may, if he is a young 

 man, himself sharing the general taste, prefer 

 the dark-eyed Anemone coronaria to the rosetted 

 flowers of earlier favour. But he will certainly 



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