On Gardeners' Flowers 



have an extremely irregular corolla. The 

 four upper petals point upwards, though 

 perhaps not always quite so markedly as 

 is described in botanical books, and tend to 

 a more or less oblong form. Now these 

 characteristic peculiarities in the petals, 

 with the very characteristic and beautiful 

 effect which arises from them, are com- 

 pletely rounded away in the Garden Pansy ; 

 its shape is nearly circular. The gain is 

 here of the highest value, for the outline, 

 colour, and expression in a good Garden 

 Pansy are all alike most beautiful, so that 

 the flower is sound as a work of art ; but 

 still its advantages are necessarily attended 

 with the almost complete destruction of 

 the original character of the plant. Some- 

 thing of the same sort will be seen in the 

 greenhouse Geraniums, or, more strictly 

 speaking, Pelargoniums. The marked ir- 

 regularities of the corolla, which every 

 one must have noticed in the smaller 

 species, and which are common to all alike, 

 in greater or less degree, often get well- 

 nigh obliterated in the artificial fulness of 

 the larger and handsomer plants. The 

 improvements are still more valuable and 

 beautiful than in the Pansy, but, as in the 

 Pansy, much of the natural shape is inev- 

 itably lost in producing them. We may 



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