100 
i 
THE FLORIST. 
age produced. It led, however, to a better state of things in time, but 
the day was not yet come; it is a question even now whether we have 
reached it—the day of pure and refined taste in landscape composition. 
I by no means implicate Kent in my condemnations: he was an 
artist of unquestioned ability. That he could at all times put his 
designs into practice is doubtful; on the contrary, that he was often 
compelled to sacrifice his own ideas to please others with less taste than 
himself is clear ; it has always been so, and we find in later times that 
Repton feelingly alludes to the same fact. 
M. A. 
{To be continued.) 
DO FRUIT TREES AND HYBRID RACES OF PLANTS 
DEGENERATE? 
Leaving the question of fruit trees for the present, we make another 
extract from the review quoted in our last article. In reference to florists’ 
flowers, at page 338 of the Scottish Gardener for last year, the 
reviewer states—“ Lastly, on this part of the subject, we may cite the 
testimony of florists’ flowers in favour of the tendency to degenerate, 
which we are now affirming. Some thirty years ago an elaborate 
description of the Dahlias then in vogue was drawn up under the 
auspices of the late Mr. Sabine, and inserted in the ‘ Transactions ’ of 
the Horticultural Society. Can Dr. Lindley tell us how many of these 
are in existence now ? Of course he will say that fashion and finer 
varieties have driven them off the field. * * * But we may put 
the question in a somewhat modified form, viz., how many of these 
Dahlias could have existed till now? The last time we saw the 
Springfield Rival, once the paragon of the quilled sorts, it was not worth 
looking at, and we suppose it extinct.” It appears to us that the 
writer in penning the above was impressed with the idea that the 
florist’s was a stationary art, instead of one slowly, but surely, 
progressive; the evidence in support of the theory that the Dahlias 
described in the “ Transactions ” of the Horticultural Society have died 
out is entirely negative. On the contrary, that they would have been 
just as good now as when first described, we have no doubt, had they 
been worth keeping in cultivation. The same may be said of the 
Chinese Chrysanthemum and spring Crocus, which were also the 
subjects of elaborate descriptions in the same work, and on looking 
over the earlier volumes of the “ Transactions,” where these are figured 
and described in such detail, and comparing them with varieties of the 
same genera in the present day, the triumph of the hybridiser*stands 
out in bold relief, and we can well afford to make allowance for the 
care and expense incurred at the time on what may now appear to us 
worthless subjects, for this reason, that they inform us unmistakeably 
how much has really been done, through hybridisation, by way of 
improving the races of flowers, of which the plates in the “ Transactions ” 
may be considered as starting points; albeit they were an improvement 
on others of a former day. 
