2 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
persevering selection as can improvements in size, colour, and other 
characteristics. We have already witnessed remarkable improvement 
in that elegant and floriferous little plant Primula malacoides, and 
although it may not be that every recent introduction would prove so 
accommodating as this little gem, I am convinced patient labour will 
be eventually rewarded in many directions. 
In cross-breeding, too, we have already reaped the firstfruits of the 
use of some of the Chinese plants, and we have abundant material 
for further developments. 
It is strange that, whilst some families of plants have been so 
vastly improved as to bear little resemblance to the old species and 
varieties that formed the foundation upon which the modern races 
have been built, other quite useful subjects have shown little or no 
advancement for many years ; and it certainly seems to me that we 
might well relax our continuous efforts to add to the numbers of 
named varieties of such things as Delphiniums, Phloxes, Gaillardias, 
and Violas, in order to devote some attention to other subjects whose 
possibilities for development and improvement appear to have 
been overlooked. Is there, for instance, no possibility of producing 
new and improved varieties of so useful a plant as the Statice ? We 
know the value of Statice incana, tatarica, and latifolia, which in a 
dried state have, until the present time of war, been an article of 
great commercial value to Germany, whence we annually imported 
large quantities. The Statices are familiar enough in herbaceous 
borders, and are not to be despised as garden plants apart from their 
uses for winter decoration ; but could not our plant-breeders produce 
new varieties of even greater merits ? The colours of most of them are 
of quiet and sombre shades, but the production of larger -flowered 
varieties with bright, distinct colours would enhance their value and 
endow them with infinitely greater interest. We have seen what has 
been done with Heucheras, mossy Saxifrages, and other simple flowers 
that have been taken in hand, but who knows the possibilities lying 
latent in Sempervivums, Sedums, Armerias, and numerous others that 
we seem to have been quite content to plant, but not to endeavour to 
improve ? 
In the matter of planning and arranging herbaceous borders, 
vast improvements have been made, the old straight lines of plants, 
graduated from the tall back row to the dwarfest-growing front row, 
have rightly given place to bold grouping in a freer and more pleasing 
style, and the studied arrangement of colour has resulted in the creation 
of borders of character and refinement. We still, however, too often 
come across arrangements of hardy plants that have the defect of 
periodical breaks in their effectiveness, and we are too familiar with 
the apologetic remarks with which an owner is wont to usher us 
into his garden, saying that had we only been a fortnight earlier we 
should have been delighted with the Pseonies or the Irises, now, alas, 
shorn of their splendour ; or that, unfortunately, we are a bit too early 
to see the border at its best, since its main features are its Delphiniums, 
