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HARDY DOUBLE FLOWERS. 
made to educe one, seems to be that double flowers are an extra development of 
inferior organs, requiring an additional stimulus to occasion this unusual expansion. 
But, on the other hand, if that stimulus is carried too far, or rendered too powerful, 
its effect will be, not the changing of the floral stamens into petals, but the pro- 
duction of an undue quantity of leaves on the plant, actually impoverishing and 
deteriorating the ordinary blossoms. And, lest it should be assumed that the 
stimulus we speak of is to be solely one afforded by nutritive soil, we must add 
that this is merely a part of the process, the principal feature of which is the 
repeated and even annual removal of the plants to a new situation and soil. 
We allude here, of course, to the method which should be adopted in attempts 
to render the single flowers of any plant double, and not to that which is necessary 
to be pursued with plants that have already been made to bear double flowers ; 
although, with particular species, this routine is as requisite after as before the 
change, to prevent deterioration. So unacquainted are we with the laws which 
govern the matter, that we are presented with instances in which the flowers of a 
plant become accidentally double, and only on part of the specimen : thus giving 
the means of perpetuating the variation, without furnishing any clue to its cause. 
Thus much premised, we shall turn our attention more especially to those 
double-flowering plants which are of a hardy character, and which, therefore, every 
person possessing a garden may easily cultivate. For this last reason, and because 
the class contains many species, the beauty of which is but very imperfectly 
known to a large proportion of growers, we will give a list of the best sorts which 
are known to us, and which we can decidedly recommend as ornamental. 
The double-flowered Lyng (Calluna vulgaris, flore pleno). A low shrub, with deep pink blossoms, 
and flowering through the whole of the spring, far into the summer. 
The double-blossomed Furze ( Ulex europcea, flore pleno). A tree-like shrub, attaining the 
height of six or eight feet, with rich orange-coloured flowers, borne almost all the year, but 
especially from April to July. 
The double-flowered common Sun-Rose {Helianthemum vulgare, flore pleno). A dwarf trailing 
shrub, with yellow blossoms, opening in May, and continuing till late in the autumn. 
(Several other varieties of the same genus have double flowers, and are very showy.) 
The double-flowered Snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus, flore pleno). A half-shrubby plant, 
rather more than a foot high, of which there are varieties with flesh-coloured flowers, and 
with those of a deep blood- colour, blooming from June to September. 
The double red officinal Pseony (Pceonia officinalis rubra). A fine herbaceous plant, about 
eighteen inches in height, with splendid red flowers, expanded in May and June. 
The double -flowered narrow-leaved Pseony (Pceonia tenuifolia plena). A dwarfer plant than 
the last, with rich red flowers, from May to June. 
The double-flowered Rocket (Hesperis matronalis, flore pleno). A fine herbaceous plant, of 
which there are two or three varieties with lilac and white-coloured flowers, produced from 
May to August, and very fragrant. 
The double large-flowered Larkspur (Delphinium grandiflorum, flore pleno). A very handsome 
herbaceous plant, bearing the most brilliant blue flowers from May to September. 
Mr. Barlow's Larkspur (Delphinium Barlowei). A hybrid herbaceous plant, three feet high, 
of a noble habit, and having large dazzling blue blossoms from June to September. 
The double-flowered Chinese Larkspur (Delphinium chinense, flore pleno). A splendid dwarf 
perennial, producing many large blue flowers from June to September. (There are other 
double varieties of Larkspur almost equally good, among which the German annual ones 
are conspicuous.) 
