1S7S.] 
THE PHILOSOPHY OF FLORISTS’ FLOWERS—II. 
65 
NEW DWARF CANDYTUFTS. 
[Plate 466.] 
HE New Dwarf Candytufts represented 
in our plate, have, with one or two 
other varieties, been recently introduced 
by MM. Vilmorin-Andrieux et Cie., of Paris? 
under the name of Thlaspi hybride nain rose, 
and nain blanc. They are in reality very dwarf 
tufted-growing and highly-floriferous forms of 
Ibens umbellata. The habit of growth is 
shown in the small uncoloured figure in our 
plate. These hybrid Iberises are said to form 
a new race which is of the first order of merit; 
and this position the two varieties we have 
selected for illustration fully maintained last 
year at Chiswick, where they were grown from 
seeds contributed by MM. Vilmorin, and where 
they were awarded first-class certificates. 
The following are the descriptions printed in 
the Report on Annuals grown at Chiswick, 
1877, published in the Journal of the Royal 
Horticultural Society (v. 42) :— 
“I. umbellata nana rosea: height, 9 inches; 
umbels very large and flat; petals broad, white, 
tinged with rosy-pink. A novel and very effective 
variety. 
“I. umbellata nana alba: height, 9 inches; 
umbels large; the petals broad, pure white. A 
very showy, distinct, and splendid variety.” 
These were the only two certificated out of 
fifteen kinds of Candytuft grown for trial, 
their superiority being so distinctly apparent. 
Being hardy free-blooming annuals, as suitable 
for the smallest as for the largest gardens, we 
have no doubt they will become highly popular, 
as they deserve to be. The plants branch from 
the very base, forming a corymbose tuft of 
branches only a few inches high, each branch 
being tipped by one of the showy broad-petaled 
umbellate flower-heads. The white is valuable 
for its density of growth and purity of colour; 
the rose-tinted one for its novel and beautiful 
colour in addition to its dwarf tufted growth. 
Our descriptive notes run thus :— 
Fig. 1. Iberis umbellata nana rosea.— Height 
9-10 inches, densely branched, forming a flat head 
of numerous corymbs of flowers; branches stout, 
erect, crowded, each bearing a succession of flower- 
heads ; leaves alternate, linear, lanceolate, with a 
depressed central rib. Flowers in dense flat 
corymbose heads, the individual blossoms large, 
unequal-petaled as in the type, of a beautiful soft 
rosy-pink. Quite a new colour amongst the annual 
Candytufts, and very chaste and pleasing. 
Fig. 2. Iberis umbellata nana alba. —Habit, 
stature, and general character as in the former. 
Flowers and flower-heads large, pure white, very 
showy. A really useful acquisition.—T. Moore. 
THE REV. G. JEANS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF FLORISTS’ 
FLOWERS.—II. 
“ GwDN my last, I disposed of the first of 
T ® the three forms of objection in which 
gUq the charge of uselessness is ordinarily 
brought against the system, of fancy flowers. 
“ II. The second objection admits the ex¬ 
istence among us of a systematic standard of 
excellence, not the mere creature of caprice, 
but repudiates it as bad, on the ground that to 
admit any such external and common standard 
at all, it not being founded in nature, is un¬ 
naturally to cramp the freedom of taste existing 
separately and independently in every one. And 
further, because, by creating a conventional 
fastidiousness, it restricts instead of augmenting 
the pleasure derivable from flowers, and fixes 
our admiration rather on effects produced by 
art, than on the genuine beauties of nature. 
“ This form of objection, or some portion of 
it, is most frequently used by those who are 
naturally capable of the highest degree of dis¬ 
crimination, both of beauties and of defects, in 
such matters,—the ladies ; and therefore I am 
not without hope that when I have shown 
them that their fears are groundless, I shall 
No. 0 . IMPERIAL SERIES.—I. 
enlist heartily in our cause some of the ablest 
supporters of this really interesting science. 
And that the objection, though specious and 
less transparently unsound than the former, is 
wholly imaginary, might not unreasonably be 
inferred, from the universal habit of florists 
perversely to agree in preferring their bondage 
to liberty ; while yet they ever become more 
interested in their pursuit, the more they occupy 
themselves in it, and at the same time con¬ 
tinue to retain their relish for a hedge Violet 
or a Primrose. 
“ Those who plead for ignorance, even though 
it be ignorance of the properties of a Pink, are 
presumptively in the wrong. Nor will the pre¬ 
sumptive evidence in this instance mislead us, 
for the objection assumes as true rvhat I hope 
to show is unfounded :—(l) That there is no 
external standard of floral excellence in Nature, 
but only in the capricious taste of each beholder; 
(2), that therefore the established system is of 
the florist’s making, not of his finding ready 
made for him; (3), that to be bound by it, is to 
diminish the natural pleasure beneficently given 
us by the Creator in the works of his creation. 
