270 
DISGUISING OF FLOWERS. 
litter ; they do not require glass sashes ; and 
during the remainder of the year they may be 
exposed to the free atmosphere, except during 
the summer, -when during the middle of hot 
days they are the better for being shaded for 
a few hours. They will very seldom require 
re-potting, but occasionally a little fresh sphag- 
num may be put about them ; or if at any 
time it should get displaced by any means, it 
should immediately be renewed. The pots 
ought constantly to stand in pans of water, and 
at least during eight months, including the 
summer half-year, the pans of water into 
which these pots are set should be deep enough 
for the water to reach two-thirds up the sides 
of the pots. They increase by seeds, which 
sow themselves ; but the commoner of the 
British species may be obtained wild in almost 
any quantity witli but little trouble. 
The few exotic species which have been i 
introduced may be grown in precisely a similar 
mannex*. the Xorth American species being 
placed with the British ones in the frame, and 
the Cape and New Holland species set under 
a hand-light, in a shady part of the green- 
house. 
THE DISGUISING OF FLOWERS. 
Theee is a certain set of florists who 
inherit from the old professors a degree of 
ingenuity which we should be glad to see 
banished altogether from the science. It was 
at one time considered a clever feat to cheat a 
judge, and no sooner was an award made 
known, than a man who had done something 
clever in the way of fraud would boast of it, 
and taunt his competing friends with their 
want of judgment for not detecting the trick. 
As long ago as we can remember, a man made 
himself famous for glueing the centre petals of 
the ranunculus together so as not to expose 
the seed vessel ; and there were not wanting 
those who followed the example on other 
flowers. The dexterity of some in dressing 
flowers gives them a decided advantage over 
such as know nothing about it, but it is diffi- 
cult to draw the line between fair dressing 
and distortion, between legitimately placing 
the beauties of a flower in the best position, 
and altogether changing the features. Like 
all other evils that are permitted to grow, the 
dressing of flowers is occasionally carried to 
extremes ; and this lias induced us to take up 
the subject in earnest. 
If the mutilation of a flower be permitted, 
great changes could be made for the better, 
even in a very bad one. If the application of 
artificial means to bloom a flower were 
objected to, there would be no stopping nny- 
where, for in truth three parts of the horti- 
cultural and floral skill mav be said to be 
expended in the application of such means. 
The very shading of a flower from the sun, or 
defending it from the rain, is to a degree the 
application of artificial means. 
There is no better test, then, to be applied, 
than the condition of a flower when shown. 
If one man could show a carnation without 
dressing, and another man mauled it about a 
good deal, the application of a glass to that 
flower which had received no dressing would 
show a beautiful enamel, or velvet surface of 
the most beautiful texture, while the bloom 
that had been pulled about and disturbed a 
good deal would show bruizes all over the 
surface, where the dresser had squeezed the 
petals and the texture of the surface. TVe 
have frequently seen fine stands of well-grown 
carnations and picotees, all laid very mechani- 
cally, but as dull as so many rags, while others 
that have hardly been touched were less 
formal, but brighter and better in all respects. 
Pinks are much of the same nature, and un- 
dergo, under some hands, much the same 
torture. But this family of subjects require 
dressing, and those who can dress best with 
the least handling, will assuredly exhibit best. 
The laws of dressing, as originally laid down 
and acted upon, were, that you may take as 
much as you like away, but must add nothing; 
and this latter restriction became very neces- 
sary when there were persons ingenious 
enough to remove faulty petals and replace 
them with fine ones from another flower. It 
must however be taken into consideration that 
if flowers are damaged materially by dressing, 
they tell greatly against the claims they 
might otherwise possess from their superior 
growth. 
There are flowers which not only do not 
require dressing, but which in the eyes of a 
good judge would be altogether condemned for 
it. We have seen pansies ridiculously spoiled 
by the attempt to give them a property which 
they did not possess ; for instance, flatness. 
The flowers have naturally been crumpled or 
puckered, and there has been an attempt to 
press them flat. TTe have seen the boxes of 
pansies brought to exhibitions with flat pieces 
of glass laid on them, and the glass loaded 
with weights of some kind ; in some cases a 
few pennyworth of halfpence, in other cases, 
stones ; but, although this continued pressure 
flattened the flower, it only laid the puckers 
into doubles or plaits, and exhibited all the 
deformities which told against the flower 
more offensively than if they had been per- 
mitted to show all the original defects. 
The dahlia is a flower so rapidly increased, 
so high in price while new, and so eagerly 
sought by amateurs, that any thing like a 
disguise in them was a serious evil. In an 
early day it was a common practice to cut out 
