HYBRID SHRUBS. 
227 
time what may ultimately prove worthless. This will have an 
effect on the production of hybrid shrubs ; it will occupy at least 
three years to determine if any he worth a permanent place, and 
where the value of the plant is dependent on its flowers, perhaps 
a much longer period ; besides which, they occupy a considerable 
space in the garden, so that it does not appear likely any great 
number of persons wdl enter on the pursuit. The nurseryman, 
if he can give the necessary attention to crossing the flowers in 
order to obtain seed, seems the most likely one to engage earn¬ 
estly in the matter; to him it will come as a matter of routine 
business, he must propagate in this manner, and may as well sow 
hybrid seed when he gets it as any other, and should the plants 
fail to differ from their parents, he is not thrown back by the 
circumstance, as his stock is increased in the manner it would 
have been under the ordinary mode; to him then it seems we 
must look principally for what may be done, and amply will it 
repay him. There are, besides, a few amateur growers who, 
from a pure love to this class of vegetation, will doubtless attempt 
it, and from them, in all probability, will emanate a few of the 
most extraordinary results. 
In the schedule we are told, “ It is certain that much may be 
effected by hybridizing plants in common cultivation, such as 
lilacs, honeysuckles, &c=, &c.and if we are to look for valu¬ 
able additions among such every-day forms,.,what may not occur 
from among the more curious ? I should imagine there is an 
endless field open to the persevering cultivator. Besides this 
positive hybridizing, it has often occurred to me how accceptable 
variegated varieties would prove of some of our common shrubs, 
and am rather surprised they are not more generally grown; 
there are even now numbers existing that are only occasionally 
met with, and yet their appearance is most enlivening among 
masses of plain green. It is certain there has been too little 
attention given to this matter, and we have now an opportunity 
and an inducement to amend it. 
With respect to the exhibition of herbaceous plants, which I 
perceive are to be exhibited in twenties, an opportunity is given 
to growers of the most humble pretensions; they will be on a 
footing with others who may boast the most extensive conve¬ 
niences, as any one may grow this class; the only point in which 
