74 
FLORICULTURE OF THE MOKTH. 
who send up flowers. Some of the sellers 
rely a good deal, and others entirely, upon 
the flowers sent up from the gentlemen's esta- 
blishments all over the country, and, curious 
enough, many a wealthy family have to buy, 
at an exorbitant price, the flowers cut from 
their own plants. This is an interference 
with the trade of the florist, and, however 
delicately it may be wrapped up in language, 
a robbery of the employer. This evil would 
be checked by the gentry insisting on a regular 
supply of flowers from all their establish- 
ments, because there is not one, however 
meanly kept up, but could furnish a good 
many half-guinea nosegays and bouquets in 
the course of the season. Among the forced 
flowers worthy of taking any trouble with, we 
may mention roses of all sorts, and especially 
the smooth-barked kinds and small-flowered, 
because they force better and last longer after 
cutting than many others. Pinks are toler- 
able, but not to be compared with anything 
we have mentioned. Deutzia scabra will yield 
a pretty flower for a bouquet. Some of the 
azaleas are acceptable, as affording yellow 
varieties, especially Azalea sinensis. Azalea 
indica of some kinds, ^specially Danielsiana, 
which has a thick scarlet flower and lasts a 
long time ; alba and phoenicea are white and 
purple, but not lasting. However, these are 
passing remarks on a subject that we flrst set 
going many years ago, when ten guineas was 
the premium or prize for the best nosegay to 
present to the Queen, and a number of gar- 
deners received the prize. 
We did not attach much importance to a 
work we are about to complain of ; but we 
were sorry to see, in these enlightened times, 
the filthy nostrums of the old writers recom- 
mended for Auriculas. If these unsavoury 
materials were once pronounced necessary for 
the cultivation of any flower, by a competent 
authority, it would not fail to banish that 
flower from the gax'dens of gentlemen, and 
wherever the work in question goes, if it has 
influence enough to be believed, the readers 
will probably give up the culture as hopeless. 
We have endeavoured to convince amateur 
florists long ago, that there is nothing more 
necessary for the cultivation of the Auricula, 
the most beautiful of florists' flowers, than rich 
loam formed of rotted turves, well-decomposed 
cow-dung, and a top dressing in February of 
poultry dung rotted into mould, cow-dung 
equally decomposed, and sand. It is not 
many years since a gentleman of the highest 
spirit, who spent, we verily believe, hundreds 
of pounds to get together the finest plants and 
the finest varieties of Auriculas, and employed 
one of the old school of florists, or rather a 
florist who learned from old books, to super- 
intend them. Great was the mortification of 
seeing his superb collection sacrificed to the 
nauseous compounds of the old books, and it 
sickened him of a fancy that no cost would 
have deterred him from following to the 
greatest extent. It is vexing, therefore, to 
see modern writers, who evidently gather all 
they suppose they know from books, continue 
to promulgate the most forbidding modes of 
culture, and journalists, seemingly as little 
acquainted with practice, admitting the objec- 
tionable advice. 
The movement, at present but feeble, and 
that in the least important quarters, in behalf 
of " prize improvement funds," is chiefly pro- 
moted by prize winners, and, without doing 
the smallest service to horticulture, excites 
the cupidity of persons who would not take 
the trouble to show unfairly for moderate 
prizes, but who, when they are increased, 
think it worth every description of jugglery. 
Collecting flowers from anybody that will 
allow them to cut from their gardens, and 
deliberately showing them as their own growth, 
is as common as the rising and setting of the 
sun. It is not desirable to offer money or value 
prizes for seedlings. So long as the practice 
existed, it was ruinous to the fancy ; seedlings 
were seen and rewarded, year after year, and 
the lucky novelties never seen again. It has 
been wonderfully unsuccessful for many years; 
but within the last few, by the change of system, 
and the award of certificates of merit instead 
of money prizes, the incentive to raise seed- 
lings has been greater ; and had it not been 
checked occasionally by the abuse of even this 
wholesome excitement, floriculture would have 
been advanced much more than it has been. 
There are more good flowers raised than ever, 
and the only thing to be regretted is, that by 
some means or other the award of certificates 
by partial judges, or prejudiced censors, has 
reached flowers that are good for nothing. 
These have been sold with an apparent good 
character, until certificates in papers, periodi- 
cals, and from societies, stand for little or 
nothing. It is the duty of all respectable 
dealers to stand up for the high tests for 
flowers — to maintain the admitted standards, 
— and though they may not experience the 
immediate good effects or temporary advan- 
tage, they will secure a permanent benefit in 
the confidence of the public, and the encourage- 
ment of young beginners. Those who can 
obtain certificates for half-a-dozen flowers in 
a few weeks, while it is notorious that some 
must be undeserved, may safely conclude that 
they are not seeking proper adjudication. It 
ought to set every honest dealer against such 
societies ; and as it was the ruin of the dahlia 
trade a few years ago, and it was but just re- 
covering the shock, so it has been injurious in 
the present season, and its effects will be felt 
