THE FLORIST’S LETTER-BOX. 
227 
consequently high priced, in this country,—and in those important general 
truths, relating to the superior culture and flowering of all plants, which are 
clearly and obviously deducible from the study of these curious and rare ones,— 
we possess advantages superior to those possessed by any, or perhaps by all, of 
our contemporaries; and we should be doing injustice to the floricultural 
world, did we not endeavour to share those advantages with its members, to the 
full extent of our ability. Florist’s flowers, and those common border-flowers 
which, though highly interesting in the way of ornament, are not petted by 
florists, at least according to the fashion of the present time, shall'not want our 
attention upon any one occasion where we can find something new and valuable 
to communicate ; but to treat habitually of that which thousands are cultivating, 
in a great many situations and modes, and all with pretty equal success, would 
be a most unprofitable and almost interminable labour. Then, as to “ exotics,” 
we would bid the possessor of even a limited number of the most common 
flowers, run over his collection, and find out how many of them were not origi¬ 
nally exotics, and as much prized in the day of their novelty, as those tropical 
flowers, which have given to floriculture a new character and a greater impulse 
than it ever previously received. 
It is a well-established fact, and one of which we shall take an early opportu¬ 
nity of explaining the rationale, that native plants are much more difficult to 
improve by culture, and to maintain in an improved state, than exotics. Some 
of the wild plants of our mountains—as for example Rosa spinosissima —have been 
brought down to warmer situations and improved; but they are all much more 
delicate and difficult to keep than those plants which are obviously natives of 
foreign and more southerly climates. If we are to improve successfully, we 
must get our original plant from a warmer country upon the average, and one 
in which the succession and character of the seasons are different, otherwise we 
burden ourselves with the greatest possible labour, and are rewarded by the 
least possible effect. In farther corroboration of this, let any one fetch a plant 
from the field or the meadow immediately outside his garden, and try what he 
can do in the way of improving that. By stimulating manure he may get a 
larger growth in the individual; but the flowers will not be improved, and the 
flowering propensity will be lowered. Hence it is that even those which are 
now our most common border-flowers, are all originally importations ; and we 
are convinced that not even the pink and the daisy of the gardens have been 
bred in this country out of the native species. 
It should farther be borne in mind, that in the case of every flower, be it what 
it may, it is not the flower itself, but the associations which it calls up, that 
constitute the real charm—that pleasure in floriculture which is the purest, 
sweetest, and most refined of all our pleasures. With this short preface we 
proceed to the contents of our “Letter-Box.” 
Commelina ccelestius. —The best mode of treating this beautiful plant, so 
as to get it to flower with certainty, in perfection, and in abundance, is to pot 
the plants in rich compost, which compost should consist of equal parts of 
loam, sand, peat, and leaf-mould, with a little well-rotted manure added. The 
bulbs should be potted early in the season, say about the beginning of March. 
They ought to be put into a little heat until they begin to push through the 
soil; and then they should be removed to the green-house, and placed as near 
