132 
FLORTSTS FLOWERS. 
seed from a friend's bed of seedlings, in which 
he had allowed some very i'ew of the originals 
to remain unmolested, and I took the seed 
from the best flowers in the bed. In the next 
season, when the seedlings came up, I feared 
there was but little good among them from 
their foliage ; and when they bloomed there 
was not only nothing worth keeping, but a 
very large proportion, indeed, were nothing 
but what I had been expecting from their 
foliage — a complete return to the oi*iginal 
weed. Here, therefore, it was manifest that 
from picked seeds, taken from the best flowers 
in a large collection, with scarcely half-a- 
dozen of the weeds among them, such is the 
disposition to degenerate, (if I may be allowed 
the expression,) much the greater part had 
gone completely back. For years have I re- 
peated, or caused to be tried by some other 
person, these and similar experiments, and 
invariably with similar results. Proceeding 
from the Pansy to the Dahlia, I, like many 
others, anxious to raise all the seedlings I 
could, began to save seed from a general col- 
lection. Once, in my own place, and among 
friends, I raised and bloomed six thousand in 
a season. In my own place, the instant I 
could discover a single flower, long before it 
opened, I forked it up ; and as soon as I could 
discover a semi-double one, or discover in any 
way that it was useless, I served it the same 
way. In this manner I got rid of all that 
were mischievous to the rest ; but, alas for the 
remainder! there were not more than a dozen 
out of two thousand that I thought worth 
planting again, and this, too, at a period when 
anything full and double passed pretty well. 
But I had seen the Spring-field rival, and 
nothing short of that would satisfy me, so I 
need hardly say I remained dissatisfied. But 
the stocks at my two friends' were not served 
so cruelly ; single and semi-double were alike 
preserved, so anxious were they that I should 
see all, that no one was permitted to remove 
a leaf; and it was enough to sicken anybody 
to see such a batch of ugly-pointed single and 
semi-double flowers. About half-a-dozen at 
one place, and twice as many at the other, 
were marked to try again, and the rest dug 
up and put in a hole to rot. But my friends, 
anxious to get a little seed, had picked the 
pods off those marked for further trial ; and 
I had saved seed from my few, resolving to try 
them separate from the seed of the general 
collection ; I did not raise more than a hun- 
dred plants the next year from seed of the 
selected seedlings, and about two thousand 
from the general collection. The large lot were 
fully as bad as the previous year's, nothing 
above an average middling flower, and not 
a dozen of those ; while there were full one- 
third of the hundred perfectly double, some 
passable. I went to look at my friends' luck, 
and neither of them had a double flower, nor 
anything approaching it. Here, then, it was 
again manifest that the disposition to go back 
to the simple flower is so great, that two- 
thirds of the seed saved from double varieties, 
without a single one near them being per- 
mitted to open, produced only the single and 
semi-double kinds, while those saved from 
double flowers among single ones had not a 
double one in the lot. But it may be asked, 
how it comes to pass that in seed saved from 
the general collection so many went back, as 
to leave hardly a score in two thousand ? This 
is easily explained, and the explanation con- 
firms the same fact — the disposition to return 
to their original form and fashion. My gene- 
ral collection contained all the best flowers in 
cultivation, and all the new flowers adver- 
tised. Now, the new flowers of that day 
were, for the most part, exceedingly bad, 
three-fourths, indeed, worthless ; but one does 
not feel inclined to throw away half-grown 
plants without a full and fair trial. I, indeed, 
have so often seen a good one play tricks, and 
bloom half-way towards single a whole sea- 
son, that, of course, I let every new one take 
its full chance ; and in proportion to its ill- 
behaviour took pains to develop its good 
qualities if possible. These single flowers, 
then, although they formed no kind of pro- 
portion to the large quantity I grew, were, 
nevertheless, enough to quite settle the qua- 
lity of the seed saved from the best. 
Nothing, then, can more clearly demonstrate 
the fact, that every thing like a flower re- 
moved from its simple state, by cultivation, 
has a strong tendency to return to it, not only 
when there is no proportion of the original or 
simple kind near it, but also, when so far as 
our own ingenuity and diligence can be ex- 
ercised, every thing even at all like it has been 
removed. In «the carnation and piccotee, 
I have seen seed saved from a large collection 
of show varieties, with, of course, not a 
single flower among them, produce hardly 
any but single flowers, and many among them 
with serrated edges, and as wild as needs be; 
while from a pod of seed saved from one 
solitary piccotee of the yellow ground kind, 
when there was not another in the whole 
garden, there were seventeen plants, and only 
three single among them; these were however, 
all but one, deeply serrated, a quality, or 
rather deformity, belonging most especially to 
the wild or single flower. I have had the 
auricula, both from seeds of my own, and 
seedlings purchased by the score, in a small 
state, and it will hardly be conceived what a 
number proved the original " Bear's-ear," 
and " Grand Present," while others were 
hardly a remove from them, and scarcely one 
