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ON GROWING ACHIMENES. 
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I 
place between species remote in their conformation and habits ; hence the philoso- ' 
phical inference, that bees and other insects, which certainly transfer the pollen 
indiscriminately, must fail to impregnate those embryos which are foreign in their 
nature to those of the plant, whence any individual farina has been abstracted. 
Again — flowers, in all their sexual organs, must be correspondingly mature, 
otherwise the attractive energy between the fluids of the pollen and those of the 
stigma cannot be so exerted, as to induce the development and absorption of the 
impregnating effluvia. 
From all that has been advanced, — from the structure and organisation of the 
roots, the stem, the vascular, cellular, and fibrous tissues of the wood, bark, 
leaves, and their progressive advances from the germination of the seed to the 
maturity of the plant, according to the laws of its individual nature, we trust it 
will be apparent that the organs of fructification are as true and specific as any 
other portion of the vegetable structure. We are fully prepared to admit that 
anomalies are of common occurrence, for we find leaves protruding among the 
petals of the rose, and learn from experience that, by crossing and confinement, 
some plants (by no means the greater number) may be made to develope blossoms, 
as it were prematurely. But there is not one fact which distinctly proves that 
blossoms, seed-vessels, and fruits, are neither more nor less than transformed leaves 
— leaves inverted, contorted, moulded to new purposes. There is something so 
monstrous, so degrading in the idea, that the mind, which contemplates all things 
as beautiful and perfect in their creation, revolts at the idea. We are told that 
full or double flowers are monsters, rendered such by the transformation of the 
styles into petals ; and so, then, the noble, most perfect double, or full Camellia, is 
nothing more than a degraded single flower! Is this the fact — do our amateur 
friends believe that they ever witnessed, ever could witness, a transformation so 
astonishing ? Again, is it possible for one moment to admit, rationally to conceive, 
that the firm, rigid, and fibrous tissue of the Camellia leaf, ever was or ever could 
be changed into the delicate, cellular, highly-tinted petal of the expansive double 
blossom ? There is a fashion, it is evident, in physiology, as well as in dress and 
decoration, and the wise too often yield to it ! 
ON GROWING ACHIMENES. 
Few plants that have lately been introduced to this country can compete with 
the many beautiful species of Achimenes , which are now become so universally and 
extensively cultivated. Almost all the qualities that we esteem as constituting 
loveliness and beauty are possessed by some one or other of the different kinds. 
So far as the routine of potting and watering, shading, and temperature are instru- 
mental to the vigour and health of plants, the cultivation of this genus seems to 
