ME. T. MOORE ON JUDGING NEW PLANTS. 



101 



house plants, owing to the more costly nature of the conditions 

 necessary to the successful production of the latter, while to some 

 cultivators, who cannot command costly appliances, they will, of 

 course, be all in all. But, on the whole, the several classes may be 

 placed on an equality so far as concerns the judgment of their merits ; 

 for whilst an advantage must be admitted to accrue in the case of 

 the hardier subject, on the ground of its more general applicability, 

 an advantage must certainly be accorded in the other case on the 

 ground of intrinsic value. Hence may be deduced this rule, that 

 plants of the several classes, denominated stove, greenhouse, and 

 hardy, should be compared only among themseves. This idea of 

 limitation may indeed be carried further, for Animals, Perennials, 

 and Shrubs or Trees should in the same way only be compared 

 amongst themselves. Deciduous plants and Evergreens can only 

 be fairly compared with plants of corresponding character ; and 

 the same may also be said in reference to plants of any specially 

 marked group, such as Agaves or Orchids. 



Further than this, plants adapted for blooming in the Winter, 

 or Spring, or Summer, or Autumn seasons, must be viewed as 

 flowers of those particular seasons, and must not be rigidly com- 

 pared except with those of their own season, because, in order to 

 avoid a scarcity of flowers at any period of the year, it is neces- 

 sary to cultivate those of every season. A plant may thus be 

 valued and really valuable on account of its blooming in winter, 

 which would be regarded as comparatively worthless in summer, 

 for the mere fact of producing blossoms during winter is sufficient 

 to outweigh a multitude of minor defects. Hence may be de- 

 duced another conclusion, namely, that the rules by which a plant 

 is judged must be relaxed in inverse proportion to the supply of 

 flowers obtainable at the particular season in which it blooms. 

 These general considerations must be allowed their full force in 

 applying any set of rules for the determination of the merits of 

 plants. 



I. Flowering Plants. 



The features which appear to be most desirable in a plant cul- 

 tivated for the sake of its flowers, as a decorative object, that is to 

 sa} r , in an ornamental flowering plant viewed as a whole, may be 

 grouped under these principal heads : — ■ 



1. Free and Symmetrical Habit of 'Growth. — It is necessary that 

 a plant, whether it be slender or robust, should be free in the de- 

 velopment of its parts, and at the same time should present eome- 



