66 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ May, 
“1. With regard to the first assumption, 
the principal object of these papers is to trace 
out from nature, as I hope to do in a subse¬ 
quent one, that standard which is alleged to 
have no existence ; for there certainly is an 
external standard of perfection, and that in 
every species of flower, even though we should 
never reach it in practice, to see it; because 
care and cultivation uniformly develop certain 
qualities, differing in each species, which are 
only dimly, and perhaps not at all, seen in 
their wild or natural state. And in those 
kinds which are technically called florists’ 
flowers, or such as are capable of great diver¬ 
sity in their varieties, by a judicious use of the 
method of hybridising, fresh varieties are still 
produced, more and more developing those 
qualities in the same direction, and pointing to 
a yet invisible standard of what, if ever 
reached, would be the perfection of that 
particular species. 
“ 2. Therefore it follows, that if florists do 
not unwisely depart from the standard indi¬ 
cated in nature, their requirements are not 
their own, and they are not answerable for any 
alleged consequences of their art. It is not 
they who put restrictions on the admirers of 
natural beauties, if any such restrictions exist 
(which, however, they do not), but not even for 
the appearance of them are they answerable. 
The work of the florist is simply to follow 
whither nature leads him, selecting always that 
track in which there is the greatest promise of 
success; and on his judgment in never depart¬ 
ing from this, and in using the best means for 
securing the accomplishment of his desires, 
depends the correctness of his practical science. 
“ And though mistakes have, of course, 
been made, and will be made again, in the 
endeavours after advancement in each particu¬ 
lar object of our culture, yet these still become 
fewer as progress is made in developing the 
natural powers and characteristic excellences of 
the plant, whereby the philosophy of its im¬ 
provement is seen ; and we do not work in the 
dark, because there is a system of .such devel¬ 
opment in nature, and a definite point of per¬ 
fection, the constant approach to which con¬ 
stitutes improvement in each species. And as 
this is effected by crossing the seed of those 
varieties which have shown respectively the 
greatest advances in some particular quality, it 
is plain that there is a substantial truth in the 
phrase common among florists,—‘ a high-bred 
glower .’ 
“3. As to the third and last assumption,— 
namely, the hardship of being deprived of the 
power of admiring a wild Pansy, and so of 
losing half the pleasure designed by the Creator, 
—the matter is not quite fairly stated. I do 
not think florists generally despise wild flowers 
in their proper place ; with myself, I know 
the very reverse is the fact. I take much 
more pleasure in them now than I did before 
I paid attention to their cultivated varieties. 
And further, I think it will be found that a 
wild Pansy will be tolerated, and even 
cherished, by a florist, where a badly cultivated 
one, though much in advance of it in respect 
of properties, would be consigned with disgust 
to the pit, as a weed. 
“ Yet it is frankly to be admitted that an 
untutored eye may delight in a cultivated 
specimen, which to the more deeply versed, 
and therefore fastidious, taste of a connoisseur, 
would convey unqualified distaste. But that 
is no more an argument that a person must 
sacrifice his pleasure in flowers by learning to 
cultivate them, than it is an argument against 
learning the art of painting, lest the student 
should lose his admiration of the signs in the 
streets ; or the art of music, lest he should 
cease to be pleased with the organ of an itiner¬ 
ant. The same argument, indeed, is equally 
available, and has been often used against all 
civilisation generally, and every particular part 
of it. The fact is, that we are so constituted 
that our onward progress in everything must 
be clogged with such accompaniments, and he 
■who would have it otherwise forgets that he is 
in a world of probation, and discipline, and 
hardness. We are urged forward only by the 
goads and spurs of our wants. But who ever 
regretted the introduction of coffee from 
Arabia, tea from China, or muslin from India, 
because the use of these things is inseparably 
connected with disgust at acorn diet, and at 
the homespun manufactures of our ancestors ? 
The refinement of our pleasures, in changing 
their objects, does not necessarily abridge them. 
Nor, though it were sure to introduce a cor¬ 
responding loss at the other end of the scale, 
would it lessen by a hair’s-breadth the sum of 
human enjoyment, while assuredly it is capable 
of a beneficial effect in humanising the man. 
And therefore I think ladies especially should 
pause before they find fault with a pursuit 
which may, in its degree, become subservient 
to one of the great ends they themselves are 
destined to fulfil on our behalf. Iota.” 
MEFFENBACIIIA SHUTTLEWORTHII. 
« HIS very distinct and strikingly hand¬ 
some stove-plant has been recentty im¬ 
ported from the United States of Colom¬ 
bia by Mr. Bull, of Chelsea, through his collector, 
Mr. Shuttlewortli, after whom it is named. It 
is perhaps one of the handsomest of all the 
Dieffenbachias, and certainly one which is so 
markedly different from the ordinary blotched- 
