ON THE LOVE OF FLOWERS. 337 
the barren wilderness, and are hailed with pleasing emotions by the 
weary traveller in the most lonely desert. 
Ever since gardens were attached to the dwellings of men flowers 
no doubt had an early introduction. When fruits and sanatory herbs 
were admitted for the supply of his board, and trees for shade and 
shelter, flowering plants were added to adorn his home and delight 
his eye. 
That some species of flowers, from the splendour of their blossoms, 
the sweetness of their scent, and the ease with which they could be 
transported from place to place, became in course of time more regarded 
than others, is a fact about which there can be no doubt. This is 
evident from looking at the inmates of our flower gardens at the pre¬ 
sent day. A majority of these are bulbs and tubers, viz., anemones, 
ranunculuses, tulips, hyacinths, narcissus, &c., all of which have 
received the particular care and regard of all lovers of flowers. The 
facility with which these different plants can be cultivated, the great 
beauty and amplitude of their flowers, and, what is still more attractive, 
the readiness with which their colours respectively become inter- 
blended among themselves, enhance their value and extend their cul¬ 
tivation. 
So interesting was this mutability of form and colour to which these 
bed flowers were subject, that new varieties were extravagantly prized, 
and so highly esteemed, that single roots were often (as now) sold for 
considerable sums of money. The demand for these new varieties was 
so general and incessant throughout Europe that commercial cultivators 
sprung up in many places, particularly in Italy and Holland, so that 
floriculture became a distinct branch of gardening, and the business of 
a florist a distinct and profitable branch of trade. 
The treatment of these tribes of plants also became a distinct section 
of the flower gardener’s duty. Rules were laid down not only for the 
management of the plants, but also for judging of the specific merits 
of the flowers. A sort of standard was arbitrarily fixed among prac¬ 
tical florists and amateurs, by which all varieties were to be judged ; 
this consisted of certain forms, positions, and colours, and particularly 
in the combinations or dispositions of the colours. The natural form, 
however elegant, or the variegations of the tints, however vivid and 
striking, are not to be judged of by their own intrinsic excellence, but 
by the amateur standard previously fixed; and to which, if the new 
flower does not make a near approach, it is at once declared naught and 
worthless! 
This refinement in flower-craft never disturbs the general lover of 
flowers. He has his beds of tulips, of hyacinths, of ranunculuses, &c\, 
VOL. IV.-NO. LI. 
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