24 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST, 
[February, 
of the leading new sorts alone went from one 
amateur this season. But let us come to 
other flowers of which seedlings are raised, 
and annually offered. What shall we decide 
in the case of a gentleman, long and well- 
known to many, whose circumstances are set 
out in the following extracts I make from a 
letter recently received by me —a letter which 
has indeed been the occasion of my discussing 
this question ? 
“ I am very much disquieted.-in¬ 
forms me that at our late exhibition, behind 
my back, my status as an amateur was ques¬ 
tioned, and my right to show in that class 
disputed. I am accused of publishing a 
priced list of my seedlings, and disposing of 
the surplus growth of the stock. It is quite 
true. I do. And more, if I am as successful 
in the future as in the past, I shall continue 
to do so. But I deny that I thus forfeit my 
status as an amateur. I have never grown a 
plant or fertilised a seed only for profit, and 
I sell my seedlings, because first, only thereby 
can I recoup my outlay on their production,* 
and secondly, distribute to those desirous of 
possessing them. And I took this distribution 
into my own hands only after every effort I 
had made otherwise to attain this object had 
failed. I regard it as peculiarly ungracious 
that I should be thus assailed, hut whatever 
be the result I shall say with Napoleon at 
St. Helena, ‘ They may call me what they 
like, they cannot alter what I am.’ If I am 
not an amateur, then is Her Majesty not an 
amateur, and I suppose I may without im¬ 
pertinence address His Royal Highness the 
Prince of Wales as a dealer in kine and 
pigs!” 
Who can doubt there is a solution of this 
question, and one not difficult to find ? It 
appears to me that the status of the dealer is 
easily determined, in that he not only rears 
seecllinys and sells them as a means of liveli¬ 
hood, but buys for the purj)ose of reselliny them 
at a proft; and no amateur can be compre¬ 
hended in the same category, for the plain 
common sense reason, that the mere act of 
exchanging a surplus article for its equivalent 
in money can never be held to constitute 
trading. 
I remember when this question was dis¬ 
cussed some twenty-five or thirty years ago, 
a very clever person desired to know what 
nurserymen sold other than their surplus, 
but this quibble had little avail, it left un¬ 
touched the crucial point, the dealer buys and 
sells to live by the profit, —Senex. 
[The question raised by our correspondent 
is a knotty one, and not so easily answered as 
might, at first, be supposed. Exceptions pre¬ 
sent themselves where least expected. We 
think, however (limiting the question to its 
horticultural application), that it is quite clear 
an “ Amateur ” does not lose his status as such 
by disposing of the stock of any new plants, 
flowers, fruits, or vegetables he may himself 
have raised ; it may be the whole stock which 
is thus parted with, or it may be what is 
designated surplus stock, that is, just what he 
himself determines he does not require, still 
he would be an “Amateur”; nor should it 
make any difference whether he sold in one 
lump or in many. If the sale extended to 
other sorts not of his own production, and 
was at all considerable, he might be considered 
to have passed the rubicon, and become a 
dealer; but even here no hard and fast line 
can be drawn, and if the practice was not 
carried to any great extent who could reason¬ 
ably object to a grower thus parting with a 
few of his choice productions—it may be to 
partially meet the expenses incurred by in¬ 
dulging in his hobby ?— Ed.] 
CROSSING SWEET PEAS. 
3 THE Sweet Pea is unquestionably a most 
T useful and justly popular Annual, and 
owing to the rich sweetness of its per- 
^ fume it is in great favour for cutting ; 
but although it is greatly admired and largely 
grown it is not, in my opinion, nearly so ex¬ 
tensively grown as it deserves to be, and it is 
seldom seen in dressed grounds, I presume 
from its requiring sticks, which are considered 
unsightly. In sheltered borders, however, 
where it is not likely to be blown about, if it 
be planted very thin (I prefer one good healthy 
plant to a dozen), and if space is given, itvfill 
form a nice bush without sticking, and bloom 
profusely. 
For years little if any advance was made in 
the improvement of this popular flower, and I 
heard it suggested by an admirer and raiser, 
that it was difficult, if not impossible, to ad¬ 
vance much further in the direction of new 
varieties. I had, however, already committed 
myself to the task, and had got two or three 
generations on the road ; and my experience 
leads me to the conclusion that in this, as in 
all other enterprises, perseverance will result 
in progress. I thought for some time that 
I was alone in this work, but the fact of the 
last season having produced several novelties 
