ssuredly it has already
achieved wonders.

It may be worth while briefly to give the well-known history of one
class of roses. In 1793 some wild Scotch roses (_R. spinosissima_) were
transplanted into a garden;[795] and one of these bore flowers slightly
tinged with red, from which a plant was raised with semi-monstrous
flowers, also tinged with red; seedlings from this flower were
semi-double, and by continued selection, in about nine or ten years,
eight sub-varieties were raised. In the course of less than twenty
years these double Scotch roses had so much increased in number and
kind, that twenty-six well-marked varieties, classed in eight sections,
were described by Mr. Sabine. In 1841[796] it is said that three
hundred varieties could be procured in the nursery-gardens near
Glasgow; and these are described as blush, crimson, purple, red,
marbled, two-coloured, white, and yellow, and as differing much in the
size and shape of the flower.

{368}

_Pansy or Heartsease_ (_Viola tricolor_, &c.).--The history of this
flower seems to be pretty well known; it was grown in Evelyn's garden
in 1687; but the varieties were not attended to till 1810-1812, when
Lady Monke, together with Mr. Lee the well-known nurseryman,
energetically commenced their culture; and in the course of a few years
twenty varieties could be purchased.[797] At about the same period,
namely in 1813 or 1814, Lord Gambier collected some wild plants, and
his gardener, Mr. Thomson, cultivated them together with some common
garden varieties, and soon effected a great improvement. The first
great change was the conversion of the dark lines in the centre of the
flower into a dark eye or centre, which at that period had never been
seen, but is now considered one of the chief requisites of a first-rate
flower. In 1835 a book entirely devoted to this flower was published,
and four hundred named varieties were on sale. From these circumstances
this plant seemed to me worth studying, more especially from the great
contrast between the small, dull, elongated, irregular flowers of the
wild pansy, and the beautiful, flat, symmetrical, circular, velvet-like
flowers, more than two inches in diameter, magnificently and variously
coloured, which are exhibited at our shows. But when I came to inquire
more closely, I found that, th