570 



FLOWERS. 



Chap. x. 



culus-like races, 190 which differ in the form and arrangement of the florets, 

 have arisen; also dwarfed races, one of which is only eighteen inches in 

 height. The seeds vary much in size. The petals are uniformly coloured 

 or tipped or striped, and present an almost infinite diversity of tints. 

 Seedlings of fourteen different colours 191 have been raised from the same 

 plant ; yet, as Mr. Sabine has remarked, " many of the seedlings follow their 

 parents in colour." The period of flowering has been considerably hastened, 

 and this has probably been effected by continued selection. Salisbury, 

 writing 1808, says that they then flowered from September to November; 

 in 1828 some new dwarf varieties began flowering in June ; 192 and Mr. 

 Grieve informs me that the dwarf purple Zelinda in his garden is in full 

 bloom by the middle of June and sometimes even earlier. Slight constitu- 

 tional differences have been observed between certain varieties : thus, some 

 kinds succeed much better in one part of England than in another; 19 * 

 and it has been noticed that some varieties require much more moisture 

 than others. 19 * 



Such flowers as the carnation, common tulip, and hyacinth, which are 

 believed to be descended, each from a single wild form, present innu- 

 merable varieties, differing almost exclusively in the size, form, and colour 

 of the flowers. These and some other anciently cultivated plants which 

 have been long propagated by offsets, pipings, bulbs, &c, become so ex- 

 cessively variable, that almost each new plant raised from seed forms a 

 new variety, " all of which to describe particularly," as old Gerarde wrote 

 in 1597, " were to roll Sisyphus's stone, or to number the sands." 



Hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis)—!^ may, however, be worth while to 

 give a short account of this plant, which was introduced into England in 

 1596 from the Levant. 195 The petals of the original flower, says Mr. Paul, 

 were narrow, wrinkled, pointed, and of a flimsy texture; now they are 

 broad, smooth, solid, and rounded. The erectness, breadth, and length 

 of the whole spike, and the size of the flowers, have all increased. The 

 colours have been intensified and diversified. Gerarde, in 1597, enume- 

 rates four, and Parkinson, in 1629, eight varieties. Now the varieties are 

 very numerous, and they were still more numerous a century ago. Mr. 

 Paul remarks that ff it is interesting to compare the Hyacinths of 1629 

 " with those of 1864, and to mark the improvement. Two hundred and 

 " thirty-five years have elapsed since then, and this simple flower serves well 

 " to illustrate the great fact that the original forms of nature do not remain 

 *' fixed and stationary, at least when brought under cultivation. "While 

 " looking at the extremes, we must not however forget that there are inter- 

 " mediate stages which are for the most part lost to us. Nature will some- 



190 Loudon's ' Gardener's Mag.,' vol. 

 vi., 1830, p. 77. 



191 Loudon's ' Encyclop. of Garden- 

 ing,' p. 1035. 



192 ' Transact. Hort. Soc.,' vol. i. p. 91 ; 

 and Loudon's ' Gardener's Mag.,' vol. iii., 

 1828, p. 179. 



Chron.,' 1843, p. 87. 



194 « Cottage Gardener,' April 8, 1856, 

 p. 33. 



195 The best and fullest account of 

 this plant which I have met with is by 

 a famous horticulturist, Mr. Paul of 

 Waltham, in the ' Gardener's Chronicle, 



are 



193 M r , wildman, in ' Gardener's 1864, p. 342. 



