GLENNY ON THE CALCEOLARIA. 
97 
GLENNY ON THE CALCEOLARIA; 
ITS VARIETIES AND CULTURE. 
Some species of the Calceolaria have heen 
cultivated for years in the English gardens, 
but their elevation to the dignity of a flo- 
rist's flower is of comparatively recent date. 
Messrs. Young and Penny have the doubtful 
credit of making the first move in hybridizing 
some of opposite characters ; and Mr. Groom 
made early progress in collecting and selling 
some of the most remarkable. It is most 
likely that the work of hybridizing, as it is 
called, was going on simultaneously in several 
places, for there were many very singular, 
and, looking as we always do at the habit of 
plants, we may say beautiful varieties, offered 
about the same period, retaining all the 
shrubby properties, and possessing many bril- 
liant colours. Perhaps the worst thing that 
ever occurred in the progress of this plant 
towards perfection, was the awarding of prizes 
to herbaceous varieties, as well as shrubby 
kinds ; for it induced people to grow both, 
48. 
and led to a degeneration of both. We have 
always maintained that the shrubby ones only 
deserve the distinction of florists' flowers ; and 
it is now difficult to find, even among those 
honoured with prizes, anything like a good 
habit of plant. The herbaceous varieties give 
us the largest flowers ; and the captivation of 
size with people who do not study all the pro- 
perties of plants, led too many to encourage 
the herbaceous kinds for that property only. 
Mr. Green, gardener to Sir P^dmund Antrobus, 
was the first and most successful exhibitor of 
this elegant subject ; and the enormous flow- 
ers on some of his herbaceous varieties, com- 
pletely rivetted the attention of those whose 
taste, or want of taste, induced them to value 
flowers by measure. Mr. Green, so far as our 
observations went, was as completely in ad- 
vance with calceolarias, as Mr. Thompson of 
Iver was with pansies; and a spirit of emula- 
tion led others to buy his best sorts, aud set to 
