Flowers and Gardens 



sure that we have not overlooked some 

 important loss, and the caution is more 

 needed because the improvements will 

 always be showy. I think, then, we may 

 assert these three positions : Firstly, 

 there are many plants, like Broom, Gorse, 

 Foxglove, Hawthorn, Columbine, which 

 seem to be absolutely perfect, in which 

 it would scarcely be possible to conceive 

 of an improvement which would raise 

 the plant as a whole. You may produce 

 new beauty by varying them, by making 

 the Hawthorn scarlet, or the Foxglove 

 white, but you cannot actually raise them. 

 Secondly, there is another set of plants 

 in which the improvements from cultiva- 

 tion are so marked as to be unmistakable, 

 and seemingly unattended with any loss 

 worth mentioning. Such are Wallflowers, 

 many Larkspurs, the large varieties of 

 the Dog's-Tooth Violet and Grape Hya- 

 cinth, our ordinary fruits and many kitchen 

 vegetables, as rhubarb, fennel, or aspa- 

 ragus, and probably corn of all kinds. 

 Indeed, never could the advantages of 

 cultivation be better seen than in our 

 fruits. In the plum, the apple, the pear, 

 what a variety of noble character has 

 been created ! Nevertheless, it must be 

 remembered that in some flowers, as the 

 170 



