330 
THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
seedling turning up a trump, what an advantage it will be to have a 
ready made stock of it ; and on the other hand, what a disadvantage 
will you he at if a seedling comes out grandly in the second or third 
year, and you find you have but one plant, the propagation on 
promise having had no attention. 
It may be well to offer a few advices to amateurs who propose to 
“make assurance doubly sure” by careful manipulations of selected 
fiowers. If you have the patience to examine the pedigrees of roses, 
of which, by the way, v/e have very few that are authentic, you will 
find that the pollen parent is the most important of the two. The 
old rule of going to a flower of high colour for pollen, and to one of 
good form for seed, has been considerably modified by recent experi- 
ments and observations. Look to your pollen parent first of all, and, 
generally speaking, think of form, substance, and colour, without 
reference to doubleness, because amongst the seedlings from varie- 
ties that are strong in form, and substance, and colour, a goodly 
proportion of thoroughly double flowers will come, for, as a matter 
of fact, doubleness is more easily obtained than any other quality. 
This is not orthodox teaching, but it is true. Hitherto writers have 
made it a point that seeds should be obtained as much as possible 
from double flowers. Our advice is that you starve the doubles into 
singles, looking for form, substance, and colour, without reference to 
doubleness, and trusting to your own power to mahe petals when you 
want them, provided you secure seedlings remarkable for perfection 
of form, distinctness or perhaps richness of colour, and the sub- 
stance of a calf skin or piece of pile velvet, or the parchment of a 
big drum of the very best maker. Pray don’t be in a burry about 
doubleness, so long as you take seed from first-rate varieties, for the 
doubleness is in the blood, and will come out as time and food and 
sunshine contribute to the stamina of the plant. S. H. 
WINTER ELOWEES EOR THE CONSEEYATORT. 
BY JOHN BHELEY, Y.E.H.S., 
Hereford Road, Bayswater, W. 
0 have a good display of flowers in the conservatory 
during the winter months is by no means an easy 
matter, and it requires some years of practice to dis- 
cover the most suitable things for winter decoration 
unless advised by those who have had some experience 
in the matter. Knowing this I have thought a few observations 
upon the decoration of the conservatory in winter would be of 
considerable service to a large body of readers. In passing I would 
add that for manj’’ years past the character of our business has 
compelled us to devote special attention tc winter flowers, and 
unusual facilities have consequently been enjoyed for arriving at 
correct conclusions respecting the merits of the most popular 
subjects adapted for winter decorations. I shall be as brief as the 
