130 
THE FLORIST S JOURNAL. 
always saved to continue the kind. But the very best have not 
been generally cultivated in the way they may be in order to 
cause them to present all their variety of tints, and what is much 
more admirable, the extreme delicacy of their petals, surpassing 
that of every other flower. So exceedingly delicate, indeed, is the 
texture of the petals, that the flowers appear more like aerial or 
gaseous phantoms than substantial vegetable bodies. 
In general we endeavour to grow all our flowers as strongly 
as possible, in order to give amplitude to all their parts. But in 
the culture of these poppies a contrary course is pursued, in order 
to raise them in that diminutive size and delicate condition in 
which they become so truly beautiful objects. When sown in 
open borders they grow more or less vigorously, according as the 
soil happens to be more or less rich : but in such situations they 
are, if thinned out, never very prepossessing either to the sight or 
scent. But if sown in very poor dry soil and pretty thickly, they 
are decreased in size and augmented in beauty; and still much 
more so if sown rather thickly in pots of very light earth, and in 
which they can be removed out of the sun and wind (which soon 
tarnish the blossoms), they then, so defended in a greenhouse or 
in living rooms, are most attractive flowers. 
These remarks on such a common tribe of plants, are not ad¬ 
dressed to professional or commercial florists, but to the amateur 
only ; who may receive real pleasure from raising such trifles. 
The large oriental poppies, so interesting for their medicinal and 
commercial importance, are admitted into the flower garden or 
shrubbery ; where they are at least most flaring objects. 
But other plants of but little esteem are now attracting notice 
after being long almost entirely neglected ; and the attention now 
bestowed upon them is no proof of a vitiated taste in our prefer¬ 
ence for such common, and by some considered vulgar things. 
We need not refer to the elevated character of the heart’s-ease ; 
but we may mention the well-known French marigold, than which 
no flower presents a union of richer colours, sometimes so regu¬ 
larly, and at other times or instances so irregularly intermixed. 
Add to this the endless variety of the flowers individually; and 
this variegation annually changing. An edging, a bed, or border 
of those flowers in full bloom, is an amusing study to the most 
refined mind. No kaleidoscope of the most complicated machinery 
can possibly show more exactly regular configurations than are 
