

APRIL. 123 
rich pastures they do not abound. The Primrose likes its sylvan shade; 
the Oxlip, the woodland glade; the Cowslip prefers the upland mead. 
It must be evident to every one what can be accomplished by art in 
the metamorphism of plants in the order Primulacese, and many other 
tribes ; so that man, by torturing Nature, has by those metamorphisms 
obtained, not created, a most gorgeous floral world of his own, which 
he only holds on sufferance. If he neglects his trust, Nature will recall . 
the charge, and strip them of their gaudy array, and place them in 
their pristine state of simplicity. I have cultivated these three plants 
for many years with many varieties of the-Polyaithus: those from 
seed produce regularly an endless variety of forms, of all shades of 
colour, and monstrosities. 
I have not found the Cowslip, Oxlip, or Primrose to undergo much 
change of character in the garden. 
Insects are extremely fond of the Polyanthus, which causes such an 
endless variety when produced from seed; and often, many of those 
plants growing near together, the pollen is immediately transmitted 
from one flower to another. The Primrose, in its native wilds, far 
distant from the Polyanthus of the gardens, suffers no change of 
character ; the pollen is not likely to be carried on the proboscis of those 
insects, as it would be on the feeding parts of insects in general. 
How happy were the days of our infancy, when we in fairy groups 
went Maying to the Primrose copse to pick the full-blown Primroses 
frometheir mossy couch, prattling on our infantile affairs, to us then of 
much import, ere care in our bosoms found a place, or sorrow more 
than a momentary stay! With the Primrose corolla-tubes we blew 
our fairy trumps, then sang our morning hymn responsive to the 
feathered warbler’s matin song, the selfsame song which their first 
parents raised at life’s first dawn to sing their Maker’s praise. Then 
to the meads, to pick the Cowslip flowers to make our Cowslip ball, or 
in our little baskets pick their corollas to make that soothing wine so 
much famed in those epidemics to which infancy is prone and oft so fatal. 
HOW TO PRESERVE FLOWERS IN THEIR NATURAL 
FORMS AND COLOURS. 
Or late an entirely new article of trade has arisen in Germany, in the 
shape of dried flowers. Erfurt, the city of nurserymen and florists, 
excels in manufacturing bouquets, wreaths, floral decorations for rooms, 
dinner tables, &c., made of such flowers. We are glad therefore that 
we are enabled to lay before our readers the modus operandi, by 
translating for them the following article from the ‘‘ Deutsches Magazin 
fur Garten und Blumenkunde.”’ 
First condition: Get a lot of fine sand, wash it till all the soluble 
particles are gone—you can test it by pouring the water off till it looks 
quite clear ; when you are quite sure of the fact, pour the sand on 
stones or boards placed aslant, so that the water can run off, and let it 
get dry either by sun or fire—dry, perfectly dry. Then pass the sand 
