The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-10 00:00:00

A Plea for Garden Flowers.

" Crocus," in a letter to the Times, says;:—Some months
since prizes were offered by the Royal Horticultural Society
for the best and most complete collections of dried plants.
Alarmed for the safety of a few rare weeds, the whole body
of botanists joined in loud outcry against the offer. It is
high time that lovers of common garden flowers should also

be up and doing. We have it on the best authority, on
that of Sir Joseph Paxton, that horticulturists are neglect-
ing all plants excepting those which, like racehorses, will
bear taming to compete for the stakes on a fixed day in the
London season. Nobody could object, of course, to prizes
being offered for successful experiments in plant dynamics
but we ought all to protest against the total neglect of
many of the loveliest ornaments of the flower garden, oc-
casioned by the high premiums awarded to nurserymen for
forcing on and retarding the flowering of costly plants.
The more rare plants which the dreaded army of weed
hunters seemed likely to destroy would have been missed
only by a few botanists who had a hope of adding them to
their own collections, but the extermination of our hardy
garden ornaments would be a widely felt calamity. Had
the botanical locusts gone forth, they would have made but
little impression on our violets and primroses and the other
cheerful companions of our country rambles, and most of us
could have borne with equanimity the extirpation of a few
inconspicuous plants which had never gladdened any other
eyes than those of a botanist. Many of us, indeed, would
have been philosophers enough to regard the disappearance
only as another interestinginstance of the influence of civili-
zation in hastening on in a country's flora the action of the
" law of natural selection ;" but none of us, excepting
nurserymen with wealthy connexions, or the few botanists
who regard flower cultivators as meddling, mischief-making
busybodies in Nature's garden, could be indifferent to the
loss of our old companions, the common flowers of our par-
terres.

Having lately seen notices of weekly shows of spring
flowers, I supposed that Sir Joseph Paxton's remonstrances
had worked their due effect, and that the danger to our
favourites, like that which threatened the rarities of the bo-
tanists, had blown over ; and on Saturday last I went to South.
Kensington to see the crocuses advertised in your journal
for show on that day. Judge of my disappointment, how-
ever, when I found, not a show of crocuses (some 15 or 20
from the society's gardens were all that were to be seen),
but a show of costly plants of ornamental foliage; of plants,
however beautiful in themselves, quite beyond my means
of cultivation.

Is the crocus considered by exhibitors no longer worthy
of a horticulturist's attention ? Or .does it not suit the
aristocratic circle of nurserymen who show plants at South
Kensington that the taste for our old and cheap friends
should be revived ? I see advertised a society for the pro-
tection of the interests of exhibitors. A society for the
protection of common garden-flowers appears at the mo-
ment more wanted; or a society for the protection of the
frequenters of exhibitions, who pay large admission fees,
in order to provide prizes for plants which few can
either cultivate or afford to purchase. Let the council
of the Horticultural Society look to it. The botanical
hornet's nest which they brought about their ears for
endangering a few wretched weeds will be nothing to what
they will suffer at the hands of our lovers of common
flowers if they are either bullied or cajoled into allowing
our garden favourites to disappear. This would undoubt-
edly be considered by the multitude a case of unnatural
selection.

The society is, I hear, making attempts to improve the
education of gardeners. Allow me, through your columns,
to offer a few suggestions. Let it duly inculcate on the
minds of the rising generation of gardeners that their desire
to exhibit should never interfere with the interests and
pleasures of their employers. Let it take as the subject of
mitsonfitrshts pirin xtehees
ysaeya,
r,in"Therewhich,
soughtev etraio be gardens
iy,thingsofforbaelal
uthtye
may be then in season." And let it, for its first lesson in
practical gardening, take " the cultivation of the crocus."