174 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
impossible to speak the truth concerning it when taken in that 
point of view. The relation of the plant, that is, of the living 
principle in the plant, to the circumstances under which that 
principle acts, is the immediate cause of the misleading; for it is 
merely a relation , and they consider it as a thing. 
The knowledge of this relation is the very basis of all culture, 
whether of flowers or of any thing else ; and there is no way of 
obtaining it originally, but by observation and experiment; and 
when a fact is established by this means, it becomes one portion 
of that which, when generalized aright, is true theory. 
The successful cultivator of common field vegetables requires 
to study the influence of many circumstances, upon even his 
limited variety of plants ; but they are nothing compared to those 
required by a floriculturist. He may be said to cultivate all the 
quarters of the world, and this often in a very limited space ; and 
though his chief object be to obtain healthy and handsome 
plants and beautiful flowers, before he can do this rightly, he 
must know something of the circumstances of plants in all places 
of the globe. This study may be separated into many branches, 
each of great importance, and yet all so related to each other 
that they must be generalized, and their effects upon the plant 
understood, by every one who aspires to be a general florist. 
The principal ones are situations, height above the mean level, 
soil, aspect, characters of the proximate lands or seas, tempe¬ 
rature, humidity, and seasonal changes ; and though some of 
these are so broad that it is difficult to generalize them, yet they 
must be studied. In studying these, the habits of the particular 
species of plant, as agreeing with its constitution and growth, are 
chiefly deduced from those branches of the subject; and when 
the necessary practice is added, the florist may be said to be 
prepared for the simple culture of plants, of whatever country 
they may happen to be natives. He has still one other advance 
to make, that of improving the plants ; and though this be very 
much a matter of experiment, those branches of knowledge 
which we have named will serve to guide him in his experiments. 
A knowledge of the powers of the principle of life, which differ 
in different plants, is also a matter of great importance, for many 
growers often kill their best plants by kindness. But, it must 
always be remembered that this principle of life is not a substance, 
which can exist apart from the living plant, and that therefore its 
