86 HARDY PERENNIALS 
most remarkable strides in public favour, and equally 
rapid progress in improvement of type and quality. 
It is no longer necessary to direct attention to the 
capabilities and usefulness of Antirrhinums, for 
these have become matters of common knowledge, 
and few gardens indeed are to be found where none 
are grown. It is difficult to name a subject to 
equal the Antirrhinum for its gorgeous and prolonged 
dispaly at so small a cost and absolutely simple 
requirements. Let the garden be in town or country, 
on the open sun-burnt and wind-swept hillside, or 
enclosed within walls or fences, and whether the 
soil be stiff, stubborn clay, light porous sand, or 
harsh gravel and chalk, Antirrhinums will make 
themselves at home and adapt themselves to condi- 
tions under which many other plants would languish 
and fail. The modern race of tall, intermediate, 
and dwarf or Tom Thumb types and varieties, rich 
in colour, compact and robust in habit, have been 
evolved by patient selection until stocks have 
attained a degree of purity and fixity that enables 
propagation to be carried on from seed with but 
little risk of any serious variation from the true 
character of a variety. To this fact may be attri- 
buted the freedom of Antirrhinums from devastating 
diseases, for there is no doubt the natural method 
of increase by seed is better calculated to preserve 
vigour of constitution than persistent propagation 
from cuttings. 
For the sake of obtaining early flowering plants 
