INTRODUCTION. 25 



cienlly account for the vast variety of forms and 

 colours among our stage, bed, and border flowers 

 now in cultivation ; and from these consequences 

 it may safely be predicted, that all our new or 

 lately introduced bulbs, still bearing their natural 

 forms and colours, may be, by artificial manage- 

 ment, changed and broken into all the variations 

 of colour, of which, according to M. Decandolle, 

 they are susceptible. 



In former times, when the botanical philoso- 

 pher was called upon to account for the variega- 

 tion of the leaves or flowers of plants, he answered 

 that it was owing to a disease in the habit. If 

 it be a disease, it is a mild one ; the growth or 

 stature of the plant is not affected ; and it is not 

 until it gets aged that the imputed malady 

 generally disappears. Like a disease, it is trans- 

 ferable from one plant to another ; and must be 

 either a malformation of the structure, or a change 

 of the qualities of the sap. If of the former, the 

 change of tint, which depends on form, may be 

 rationally accounted for ; but if of the latter, it 



