92 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



prevent injury by winter damp; and full exjjosure to air 

 and light. In places much overshadowed by trees, or 

 where much hemmed in by walls and fences, hollyhocks 

 do not prosper. They love sunshine and fresh air ; they 

 love good living ; and in a hot, dry season may with great 

 advantage be liberally supplied with water. 



On the question of single versus double hollyhocks there 

 is not much to be said, because what is preferred to-day 

 may be rejected to-morrow. Having through a course of 

 years grown collections of the finest named hollyhocks, our 

 own taste inclines to the double flowers, the beauty of 

 which might tempt one to speak of them as sublime. But 

 few, very few, of the lovers of flowers in the present day 

 have any proper idea of what a hollyhock of the florist's 

 type is like ; in the days when they were freely and finely 

 exhibited they filled with surprise the novitiates, and we 

 hope to see them do so again, for, as we have said above, 

 between eclipse and annihilation there is a difference. 

 Disease has not destroyed the potato, and this, our 

 grandest of border-flowers, gives many welcome signs of 

 its intention to live through the trial. 



