Januauy 21). 
COUNTilY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANiON. 
313 
tho petals as firmly as the colour is fast. Duration! 
Why a llowcr may ho au everlasting, anti he of no use 
to the Jlowcr-gardener; and yet, a llowcr that endures hut 
for a season is his delight. Jlcnce a coiupromise is 
made hetween substance and duration. 
These arc the only five jioints yi our charter gene¬ 
rally ; but tlicro arc those still who insist on a sixth 
point, w'hich includes the habit or growth of the plant— 
a point of very great convenience, certainly, but not 
absolute like the five points. There is an absolute de¬ 
mand in all good gardens for each of those five points 
by those who ])ay the piper, for they consider those 
lioints essential to a good fiower-garden. High colours 
first, warm colours next, and then clear, clean tints and 
shades, but not a word about the shape of a flower, or 
the outline of a petal, for neither of them could heighten 
or diminish the beauty of a flow'er-bed. A fringed petal 
may be better tban a “rose-leaf” petal; and an oval 
llowcr, or a llowcr in the shape of a Eronch horn, may 
be far more suitable for a bed than a round one. Every 
point in the fiower-garden is founded on strict useful¬ 
ness ; but are not those of the florist just as much so as 
those of the oilier ? No, they are not; the most essential 
point in the florist’s flower is shape, and that is not of 
the least use., it is merely a fancy; but he strives for it, 
he pays for it; it is his hobby, and ho has a right to it 
as ho pleases; and if ho had stopjicd there, within his 
own prescribed boundary, he had done w^cll, but that he 
did not do. He runs me and my flowers, liussian-like, 
I from every safe harbour and anchorage within his owui 
j dominions; and not only that, but turns up his nose, 
j and threatens all my pets and seedlings within my own 
I fenced kingdom, unless they turn round and do as he 
i wishes, whether I wish it or not. A pretty pass, indeed. 
But who will play tho Austria hetween us ? lias tho 
weaker party no friend to settle matters between us? 
1 have no wish to take any undue advantage of my 
, strong position in the flower-garden of England against 
i a low Dutch degree of civilisation of a former age, for 
I 1 can w'ell afl'onl to be generous, by virtue of my calling, 
I and I wish to be so with all my heart. I would “ give 
in ” two or three of my secondary points for one point, 
which the florist docs not consider essential to any one 
of his flowers at all; but highly so to the system of 
which he forms a part and parcel; and that point is the 
systematic point of sneering at every one of the flower- 
j garden seedlings, although no one out of his own circle 
I sympathises with him. Let the florist, henceforth, give 
' up this one point; yea, lot all of us be more charitable, 
j and look upon each other’s fancies as good enough, and 
! as fulfilling the difl'erent ends for which we labour for 
them, and ])eace shall bo proclaimed upon the basis of 
all the points for which we now jostle each other and 
all who cross our paths. 
' 1 had been led into these points on reading Mr. 
Brent’s letter on the Pigeon fancy, at page 285, the best 
and most sensible letter 1 ever read on the subject of 
judging fancy articles, whether dead, or alive, or grow¬ 
ing. lie laid the points so pointedly in that letter, that 
1 really thought the saddle suited the flower-gardener as : 
I much as any of us. I relented on the spot, do hereby 
i give in at once, and never more shall this pen rail or j 
' rattle over a I’ound flower or a smooth-edged petal, 
i The flower-gardener’s new year begins on the 1st of 
i February, tho best time to turn over a new leaf, to forget , 
' wiiut is ])ast, and to make up for what has been amiss, i 
by a more diligent use of all new plants and seedlings 
which may happen to fall in with the notions of cither , 
party. The first seedlings of this year, with me, are 
. just pushing up the soil in a double pot, one pot within 
another. They are from the seeds of Diehjtra spcctahilis, 
'■ which were sent me last summer. I sowed them as soon 
as I received them, and kept them under glass for a 
mouth, to see if they would start or could bo forced to 
grow at once, and contrary to what 1 well knew was 
natural to them. In that, liowevor, i did wrong; they 
should not have been sown until tho first week in 
October, or, at least, until so late in tho autumn that 
the summer heat of the surface-soil was considerably 
lowered. At tho end of tho first month of in-door 
treatment I turned out my seed pot, and ])luuged it just 
to tho rim, and no more, in tho open border, and turned 
another pot over it, to keep off birds and mice, heavy 
rains and too much sunshine. I never allowed it to 
become dry, nor did [ give it much water; and after 
tho October rains the ground was wet enough without 
watering a pot plunged and kept dark with the over 
pot. About the beginning of December 1. took it up 
and gave it a cold pit treatment, and by the 2t)th of 
January every one of the seeds vegetated. A similar 
treatment, very nearly, had the very same effect with 
me this time last year ; two seedlings were uj) when the 
long frost came, the rest which were following were, no 
doubt, touched by the frost, or alternate frost and ex¬ 
treme dryness, so that between tlie two 1 lost them 
without ever seeing them; and i also lost one of the 
two seedlings, but the other made a fine j)lant, which 
will bloom next spring ; besides that one and the present 
batch of seedlings, I had three strong plants, from tho 
growth of 185 t, sent mo by a llevercnd gentleman, down 
near Yarmouth, so that if 1 cannot prove or disprove 
the notion dbout the shyness of the plant to seed being 
caused by ages of propagation, in China, by division of 
tho roots, it will not be for want of materials, and J 
would recommend that same subject to the notice of 
the florist. Has he iiot, like the Chinaman, run out 
some of his “roots” by over propagation, by forcing 
and parting them with too great a liurry? How else 
is it to be accounted for, that the premier seedling of 
one year is hardly worth planting tlirec years hence? 
But let me keep to the text till L finish what 1 want 
to say about the Diclijtra while it is fresh on my memory. 
Suppose it to become a subject for cross seedlings; and 
suppose, also, tho florist and tho flower gardcncr to be j 
running a race about who shall bo first able to bring | 
the seedlings to market; 1 am persuaded there is a I 
system by wliich one party can “ prove it” twelve months 
before the other, on the supposition that one of them 
acts on the safe system, while tlic other risks his chance 
on superior skill and good conveniences for exerting his 
superiority. 
The safe system is to gather the seeds, and lay them 
by in tho pods till tho beginning or middle of October; 
then to sow them; for if they are kept till the spring, the 
chances are that twelve months more will elapse before 
they can be proved; to ])ut the pots at once into a 
cold frame, and to keep the earth in them between wet 
and dry all the winter. By that process the seedlings 
will appear in March, and do well; whereas, by following 
tho plan I tried, twice running, the seedlings will be 
sure and certain to rise too soon ibr the convenience 
and skill of nine-tenths of those who may bo trying 
their luck in the race. I have seen the day when a 
batch of tho most tender seedlings coming to hand in 
the dead of tho winter w'ould have been welcomed 
rather as a proof-prize than a ditficulty ; but now, 1 am i 
not quite free from apprehension for tlieir sake; because 
1 want tho necessary convenience of a comfortable stove 
to watch and nurse them in for a couple of months. 
But say that a young, ardent spirit is bent on “ making 
a spoon, or spoiling a horn” with tho experimeiit, he 
will sow the seeds tho moment they arc ripe, or, rather, ten I 
days before they are quite so; he plunges the pot in 
heat at once, and keeps it in continued forcing through 
the autumn, and by the end of tbe fourth month he will 
be looking for tho seedlings to rise, and if they come 
before the end of November, it is all but certain that 
he will be able to prove them before the end ol' May 
