NATURE S HINTS TO FLORISTS. 
477 
such as those which have been referred to, 
are confined within such narrow limits as in 
this case they would be, there is a possibility, 
that as the plants become old, and the roots 
have taken up most of the nutriment within 
their reach, the leaves would become yellow 
and sickly-looking. Now, this would be 
positively opposed to the object in introducing 
such plants at all ; and it would be better to 
do without them altogether, than to have 
them in a miserable plight. This, therefore, 
must be avoided. There is perhaps no better 
or easier way to do this than to use liquid 
manure during summer (of course, abundant 
supplies of water, also, will be required). 
Guano water, or water in which some of the 
nitrates, as nitrate of soda and potash have 
been dissolved, will serve the purpose. Soot 
water would also be found a good form of 
liquid manure for this purpose. 
NATURE'S HINTS TO FLORISTS. 
How singular but unerring a lesson is 
given us in the constant struggle of nature 
to resume her sway ! When man has been 
permitted to lead her out of her usual course, 
whether it be in the crossing of the races of 
animals, or the hybridizing or high cultivation 
of flowers and plants, the animal and vege- 
table kingdom alike yield to the constant at- 
tention and skill of man, and alike revert to 
their own original character the instant man 
relaxes in his care. Does it not seem a beau- 
tiful object of contemplation that man is 
rewarded for his skill and ingenuity in being 
sanctioned in his endeavours to improve the 
races of animals and vegetables ? Here is a 
fact which speaks volumes. Nature scatters 
her beauties in abundance, but all things have 
individually only a small share ; man is en- 
deavouring to collect the shares of many sub- 
jects into one individual. Agriculturists ob- 
tain by cross-breeding and high feeding the 
good points of several animals in one ; the 
gardener obtains in a single fruit the good 
qualities of several ; the florist rests not until 
he has monopolised in a single flower the good 
qualities that have been divided among many. 
Take any popular subject for an illustration : 
to the Rhododendron family nature has been 
bountiful, but her favours have not been 
lavished on one ; to It. ponticum she has given 
the valuable quality of hardiness, but the 
flower is mean, the foliage poor; to arboreum 
she has given a brilliance of colour not to be 
surpassed. The florist has by means of his 
art and science so cross-bred these two kinds, 
as to have obtained in one individual both the 
hardiness and the brilliant colour ; and having 
attained this object, he is permitted to multi- 
ply the new branch of the family to any 
extent, and the subject is established in per- 
petuity. Plant out one of the individuals where- 
ever it will grow, and it will not degenerate, 
as man calls it ; it will not revert to its former 
ill-shaped, mean looking flower and foliage on 
the one hand, nor will it loose its hardiness 
on the other. But man is permitted to go 
farther than this ; by a different mode of cul- 
ture he is allowed to increase the vigour of a 
plant, and by seeding from it in the state of 
excitement, to produce a disposition to sport ; 
to select from the progeny such as deviate 
from the natural habit, and, according to his 
finite notions, are improved in form, texture, 
or colour, and by bits from the plant itself to 
multiply the same thing to any extent ; but as 
this is no longer concentrating the individual 
beauties which nature had already supplied, 
but creating out of her abundant powers new 
ones contrary to the original properties of the 
plant, the instant man relaxes his watchful- 
ness, and withholds that management which 
has produced the change, he loses the charac- 
ter which he has established. But we have 
yet one feature in this change that rarely 
enters the mind of the thoughtless. The 
change is wrought. The individual variety 
is multiplied, and passes into the hands of the 
idle, as well as the industrious ; the former 
puts his pet plant into the ground and leaves 
it there, uncared for, unattended ; the latter 
continues the care which produced the change. 
The idle one sees nature claiming her wan- 
dering subject, and the flower go back as near 
as may be to the original simple form ; the 
industrious florist preserves his in all its 
beauty and integrity. To bring this home by 
example : the Pansy has been changed from 
its native deformity — if it be not impious 
to call anything in nature deformed — to a bold, 
circular, velvety, rich flower ; continue pro- 
pagating by cuttings and rich feeding, and it 
remains true. Plant it out on poor, natural 
soil, and leave it untouched, and it will go 
back to a form, and diminish to a size, that 
no florist would tolerate in his garden. Pinks, 
carnations, and picotees, are in this parti- 
cular the same ; place them in natural ground, 
and leave them there ; and you will see them 
diminish in size and doubleness, and get worse 
in form, until they become like wild ones, in- 
stead of garden varieties. Again, sow seed 
from any of these highly bred flowers ; nature 
struggles so hard to regain her sway, that 
nine-tenths of the seedlings are more like the 
original flower than like the improved one. 
The vigilance of the florist is obliged to step 
in ; he destroys all that go back a single step, 
and retains only those which maintain their 
improvement. Let him save seed from the 
whole collection, bad and good, and his relax- 
ation this one season is fatal. They will 
