FLORICULTURE, or CULTIVATION OF FLOWERS. From the earliest times, and wherever any considerable progress has been made in civilization, plants have been cul tivated for the sake of their beautiful or fragrant flowers. Flowers have been very gen erally employed not only to afford gratification, and for the adornment of the person and of houses, particularly on festive occasions, but in many countries also in connection with religious rites. Flower-marketA existed in ancient Athens, as in the richest capitals of the modern world. India, . China, and Mexico have been famous for the cultivation of flowers, from the earliest periods to which their his tory can be accurately traced. Artificial means have been employed for the protection and cultivation of delicate.exotics, prized only on account of their flowers, far more generally and assiduously than for the cultivation of any fruit-bearing, culinary, or otherwise useful plants. Those who cannot afford more than a very small green-house, almost always devote it to flowers; and those who cannot attain even this, have a few favored plants under a frame, or at least in a window.
Flowers are either cultivated in borders of a garden mainly appropriated to fruit trees and culinary vegetables, or a separate flower-garden is formed, consisting generally of parterres cut out of a lawn. Of late years, the separate flower-garden has become much more common than formerly. There is much room for the display of taste in the form and grouping of its parterres, and both in it and in the humbler flower-border, in the arrangement of the flowers themselves. A common rule has always been to place the plants of tallest growth generally at the greatest distance from the walks or alleys from which they are to be viewed, and those which scarcely rise above the ground, nearest to the spectator: it is also of evident importance, except in extensive gardens, that every border or parterre should be gay with flowers during all the spring, summer, and autumn. on which account attention must be paid to the intermixing of plants that flower at different seasons, and for this purpose annuals are often sown amongst peren nial plants and shrubs; whilst it is always necessary to take care that the combination of colors be such as to please and not offend the eye, in order to which complementary colors arc brought together—red and green, blue and orange, yellow and violet—whilst a judicious mixture of white blends and harmonizes those which would otherwise appear unpleasantly contrasted. This rule is equally applicable to the grouping of flowers in one border, or of parterres in which masses of the same color are exhibited, often produced by an extensive planting of the same flower, a practice which has recently become common, and by which the greatest splendor of general effect is pro duced.
The flower-garden requires the same attention to the habits of particular species, and the same assiduity in digging, cleaning. etc., which are requisite in other departments of horticulture. Perennial herbaceous plants generally require to be not unfrequently
renewed by parting of the roots or otherwise, as the tuft extends and the flowering stems become more numerous, but weaker and less productive. Many plants are placed in the flower-garden in summer, which require the protection of the frame or green-house in winter.
In no department of horticulture have greater changes been effected by cultivation. Even the practiced eye has often some difficulty in recognizing the splendid varieties which the florist has produced, 'as the progeny of the unpromising Original form. One of the most common effects of cultivation is the production of double flowers, in which the stamens have been converted into petals, as in roses, so that if the flower is perfectly double, it can produce no seed by itself; or, in the case of -composite flowers, the florets of the disk assume the same form with the florets of the ray, as in dahlias, asters, etc. Much improvement has been effected by crossing,not so frequently by the real hybridiza tion of different species, as by the intermixture of artificial varieties already obtained; and ninny of the finest varieties are the mere result of the careful selection and cultiva tion of individual plants of superior beauty. and of their progeny.
The greenhouse, conservatory, stove, etc., in which exotic flowers are cultivated, are noticed in separate articles. But perhaps this article would not be complete with out some notice of window-gardening, by which a charm is added even to the abodes of the wealthy, particularly in cities, and by which even the poor have the delight of tend ing a choice exotic or two, and becoming familiar with the beauty of their flowers. The care requisite in window-gardening is the same as for plants kept in flower-pots in the green house; there must be the same re-potting, pruning of the roots, etc., from time to time, and at least as much attention in giving water and air. Of the former, the most common mistake is to give too much, and of the latter too little. It is a good rule, that except immediately after water is given, it should never be seen in the saucer; nor should the earth appear very moist. The situation, however, being in many respects less favora ble, many plants, as heaths, which are frequent in greenhouses, cannot be successfully cultivated in the windows of apartments. The common notion that the burning of gas in apartments injures window-plants, does not appear to be well founded. WartmArt CASES, by means of which many delicate plants are produced in the greatest perfection in the windows of apartments, are noticed in a separate article.
Horticultural societies (q.v.) have .of late done much for the encourag'ment of the cultivation of flowers,and particularly among the humbler classes of sock ty, with evident increase of amenity within and around their abodes, and an unquestionable tendency to refinement of habits and feelings.