456 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



from another, but we do not meet with any statement as to the practical 

 results obtained. Notwithstanding this absence of proof, instructions 

 given with such minute attention to detail as is to be met with, e.g., 

 in Plat's " Garden of Eden," might well allay the suspicions of any 

 inchned to question the efficiency of current methods. These are Sir 

 Hugh's instructions, which we find repeated in editions of his book 

 appearing as late as 1660 (1659) ^^75, given under the marginal 

 heading " Single flowers doubled " * : — • 



" Remove a plant of Stock-gillifiowers when it is a Uttle woodded 

 and not too greene, and water it presently ; doe this three dayes after 

 the full, and remove it twice more before the change. Doe this in 

 barren ground, and likewise three dayes after the new full Moon re- 

 move againe, and then remove once more before the change. Then 

 at the third full Moon, viz. eight dayes after, remove againe, and set it 

 in very rich ground, and this will make it bring forth a double flower ; 

 but if your Stock-gilliflowers once spindle, then you may not remove 

 them. Also, you must shade your plant with boughs for three or foure 

 dayes after the first removing ; and so of Pinks, Roses, Daysies, 

 Featherfew, etc., that grow single with long standing. Make TuHpees 

 double in this manner. Some think by cutting them at every full 

 Moone before they beare to make them, at length to beare double." 



Incredible as it may seem to us to-day that such views should 

 have been seriously entertained in recent times, it is evident that this 

 kind of superstition did persist for a considerable period, if, indeed, 

 it is not to be met with occasionally even now.f 



Yet the fact that the double Stock is undoubtedly obtained from 

 the seed of singles had already been definitely stated by Parkinson 

 as early as 1629. % In his celebrated " Paradisus terrestris " he says : — 

 • " But this you must understand withall, that those plants that 

 beare double flowers doe beare no seede at all, and is very seldome 

 encreased by shpping or cutting as the next kinde of double is : but 

 the onely way to have double flowers any yeare (for this kinde dyeth 

 every winter for the most part after it hath borne flowers, and seldom 

 is preserved) is to save the seedes of those plants of this kinde that beare 

 single flowers, for from that seede will rise some that will beare single 

 and some double flowers, which cannot be distinguished one from 

 another, I meane which will bee single and which double, until you see 

 them in flower, or budde at the least. And this is the onely way to 

 preserve this kinde : but of the seede of the former kinde was never 

 known any double flowers to arise, and therefore you must bee carefull 

 to marke this kinde from the former." 



Despite Parkinson's statement, the old tradition, as we have seen, 

 lived on. We meet with mention of it again a little later in Ray's 

 "Historia Plantarum " (1686) as a belief held by others ; he himself 

 appears to have had an open mind upon this point. Having stated 



* Pv.. 85^(5^11 edition), 



t See Chate, Culture pratique des Giroflics, p. 61. (Undated but published 

 between 1858 and 1866.) J p. 261. 



