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one of the first objects of the cultivator of a flower is to promote variation and establish the most distinct and beautiful varieties. For exhibition purposes the best varieties are those known as the Victoria, French Pæony, Giant French, and Betteridge's.

For large beds, mixtures of colours are desirable, but the flowers should be uniform in style, and therefore only one sort or section of asters should be grown in a bed. Those who know the sorts well may indeed use several in the same bed, but the safe way for the beginner is to be content with one or two-say a moderately tall kind for the mass, and a dwarfer sort for the margin. One of the best sorts for beds is the Tall Chrysanthemum-flowered, and the Globe German may be used next the margin. The Washington makes a fine bed, with immense flowers of all colours. If a choice dwarf sort is wanted for a bed, there is, perhaps, none better than the Dwarf Pæony Perfection.

For pot culture the Dwarf Victoria, Dwarf Schiller, and Dwarf Chrysanthemum-flowered are invaluable, and in common with other kinds may be had in a variety of colours. To grow them well in pots great care is requisite.

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Calendula officinalis.

ROM the common marigold here faithfully figured, and suggestive of soup, to the delicate French marigold, Tagetes patula, that the florists grow for exhibition, and bring to a perfection of geometric marking that makes a place in floriculture for mathematics, what a stride! Fifty years ago a flower show of a very individual nature engrossed my attention and made a very deep impression on my mind. It consisted entirely of common marigolds, and the scene was the churchyard of St. Botolph, Aldgate, where these flowers had run wild, and, as wild things are wont to do, had taken care to keep the race going,

so that there should be no lack of

wild marigolds from year to year, for in truth the ground was literally covered with them as with a pavement of stars stamped out of the rinds of oranges. At that early date I had heard, but had never tasted, of soup flavoured or adorned-I knew not which-with

marigolds, and I stole and munched a flower, and was lost in the admiration of contempt for the people who could put such trash into soup, whether for flavouring, beautifying, or any other purpose. My father, being a florist to the backbone, would not tolerate a common marigold, and so I had to play the thief to gain the knowledge of the comparative worthlessness of marigolds in clear ox-tail. Within a few weeks of writing this I have had to judge at a flower show where the study of French marigolds occupied me nearly an hour to award the prizes to my satisfaction. What a stride! But Providence gave me years to accomplish it, with enjoyment at the beginning and the end and at all the intermediate stages. To stride over marigolds, beginning with soup and ending with the fine arts, is not a particularly noble business, but one might do worse; one might be M.P. for Battle Bridge, for example, or confessor to the pirates of the Flowery Land. When the churchyard marigolds enraptured me I had not read Shakespeare, but I call to mind now his association of them with the grave in the fourth act of "Pericles ".

Enter MARINA, with a basket of flowers.

"No, I will rob Tellus of her weed,

To strew thy green with flowers: the yellows, blues,

The purple violets, and marigolds,

Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave,

While summer-days do last. Ay me! poor maid,

Born in a tempest, when my mother died,

This world to me is like a lasting storm,
Whirring me from my friends."

The marigold is a very important flower to the sentimental. "As the marigold to the sun's eye," so is anything you like to speak of for its constancy. The marigold

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