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PAXTON'S FLO WEE GARDEN. 



The tendency to form distended sterile flowers, to which this owes its beauty, is one which has 

 attracted little attention. That it does not indicate natural affinity is plain from a comparison of the 

 very different orders in which the tendency is manifested, as in Umbellifers, Hydrangeads, and 

 Crucifers, where it occurs in the corolla. Nor is it wholly the result of domestication ; for we believe 

 that no instance is known in which the peculiarity has been observed, unless the plant is partially 

 thus deformed when wild. For instance, among "Viburnums, the only certainly known snow-ball 

 sorts are V. Opulus, Oxycoccus, molle, plicatum, macrocephalum, — all of which have sterile radiant 

 flowers when wild. Indeed the present plant, with only a part of its flowers in this state, would, 

 we suspect, be handsomer than the perfect monster we possess : at least the appearance of the wild 

 specimens justifies the conjecture. This wild state was observed by Fortune, in May, 1844, both 

 at Teintung and JNTingpo, where specimens were collected. 



