THE ADVANTAGES AND EVILS OF SIZE IN FLOWERS &c. 409 



grown on a dwarfed plant. The orthodox Hollyhock is also much too 

 thickly doubled, so that it becomes a tight wrinkled hemisphere. The 

 beautiful Hollyhock has a distinct wide outer petticoat, and the inner 

 portion is not so tightly packed but that its component petals, though 

 closely grouped and loosely crumpled, admit of the free play of light and 

 colour. 



The undesirable influence of the rage for novelty, rather than a calm 

 judgment of what is most beautiful, is also seen in the matter of colour. 

 Some flowers have naturally only a tender tinting, which seems to be so 

 much a part of their true nature that attempts to force them into stronger 

 colouring can only detract from their refinement. Such a plant is the 

 delicious Mignonette, with a tender colouring that seems like a modest 

 self-depreciating introduction to its delicious and wholesome quality of 

 sweetness. The slightly warmer shade of the anthers in the plant of 

 normal tinting, with a general absence of any positively bright colouring, 

 is exactly in accordance with the plant's true character, and with that 

 modest charm which gives it a warm place in every gardener's heart. But 

 when, as in some of the recent so-called improvements, the graceful head 

 is enlarged and condensed into a broad thickened squatness, with large 

 brick-red anthers, the modest grace which formed the essence of the sweet 

 flower's charm is entirely gone, and in its place we are offered a thing that 

 has lost all beauty and has only gained a look of coarseness. And these 

 broad thick blooms have a suspicion of rank quality about their scent which 

 was never apparent in the older forms, as I have previously mentioned. 



All honour and grateful acknowledgment are due to seed-growers both 

 at home and abroad for the many grand plants that we owe to their careful 

 labours. I know that they will take these remarks in good part, and, after 

 all, it is only by letting the raisers of new flowers know what is wanted 

 that we may expect some day to get it. 



When considering fruits and vegetables we stand perhaps on more 

 definite ground than in defining the borders of good taste in the develop- 

 ment of a flower. But let me first state that the majority of raisers of 

 new fruits at the present day — and vegetables, I think, may be included 

 with them— are actuated by the praiseworthy desire to place flavour 

 first, and one reason is that the palate of the British public is no longer 

 quite so satisfied with the turnipy Pear or watery Strawberry ; and this 

 placing of flavour before bulk is, I am happy to say, one of the creeds of 

 the Fruit and Vegetable Committee of this Society. May it long continue 

 a policy so beneficial in its influence on the raisers of new productions ! 



It is my belief that large fruits and vegetables rarely pay for the 

 growing, and those who have the overlooking of allotments and cottagers' 

 gardens, or have influence in the many gardening societies now established 

 throughout the British Isles, should discourage the over-development 

 of their produce, because it is a practice at once wasteful and destructive 

 of good quality. Vegetables in almost all cases should be cut when 

 young, therefore a strain which attains reasonable size quickly, offers a 

 distinct advantage. The grower naturally wishes to produce fine well- 

 developed specimens for the table, and the temptation is to leave them 

 so long that good quality is sacrificed. 



In Apples and Pears for cooking, size is a distinct merit, as it saves waste 



H 



