86 
METHODS OF IMPROVING INDIGENOUS PLANTS. 
richer, year by year, till it is seen that a further enrichment operates prejudicially 
rather than usefully on the flowers. It may here be noted that the effect of 
moderate additional nourishment on a plant is generally manifest in the increased 
size and deeper colours of its blossoms, and often, finally, in their becoming semi- 
double or double. 
To augment the benefit derivable from extra nutriment, which, however, is 
sometimes caused by the earth being more retentive of moisture, and not so much 
from its containing manure, it is an admirable plan to move the plant yearly from 
place to place, so that it never remains more than one year in the same spot. It is 
not meant that it should be taken to another garden, or to a different sort of locality ; 
for it is easy to fix upon the kind of position most congenial, and when once ascer- 
tained it should be always secured. What we seek to urge is that each specimen 
be annually shifted from the precise mass of earth in which it is growing ; which 
effected, it is immaterial whether it be taken to a great distance or merely a 
few yards. 
We are decidedly of opinion that, on the last circumstance, the success of all 
experiments in gaining a superior race of plants is more dependent than on any of 
the properties of the soil, although these must ever be taken into account as 
auxiliaries. How repeatedly have we noticed the double Daisy, and other double 
flowers, degenerate into single ones solely from being left two years in one spot I 
Indeed, the shifting which we recommend may be said to constitute the chief feature 
in the cultivation of the plants here treated of. They get no such tendance from 
Nature, because they can fulfil the offices for which they are appointed without it. 
But when they are cultivated for display, and, after being raised to a degree of 
beauty to which they have before offered no parallel, descend at once to their primal 
condition if only neglected in this particular for a single year, it is surely reasonable 
to suppose that the treatment comprised in that one condition has been powerfully 
and mainly instrumental in improving them. 
Closely associated with the annual removal of the specimens, is an operation 
which should be effected simultaneously therewith. It is the division of the plants, 
assuming them to be herbaceous species, the destruction of the central and older 
portions, which are becoming feeble or advancing towards decay, and the trans- 
plantation only of the young, exterior, and healthy parts. For some kinds this 
care may possibly be superfluous ; for others it is essential ; and where every 
aid in the promotion of the object is to be gladly seized upon, such a method must 
not be passed over. 
The third system of melioration we have pointed out is the propagation by seed 
of the plants subjected to culture ; and though annuals and biennials fall more 
beneath this head, it will unquestionably not prove irrelevant with perennials. 
The seed is to be selected from such plants as have been most influenced for the 
better by the treatment they have received, and being sown in a favourable soil and 
situation, the seedlings should be transplanted with care, and properly tended till 
