fied in shape from a flat to a globular
form. Anemone and {370} ranunculus-like races,[804] which differ in the
form and arrangement of the florets, have arisen; also dwarfed races,
one of which is only eighteen inches in height. The seeds vary much in
size. The petals are uniformly coloured or tipped or striped, and
present an almost infinite diversity of tints. Seedlings of fourteen
different colours[805] have been raised from the same plant; yet, as
Mr. Sabine has remarked, "many of the seedlings follow their parents in
colour." The period of flowering has been considerably hastened, and
this has probably been effected by continued selection. Salisbury,
writing 1808, says that they then flowered from September to November;
in 1828 some new dwarf varieties began flowering in June;[806] and Mr.
Grieve informs me that the dwarf purple Zelinda in his garden is in
full bloom by the middle of June and sometimes even earlier. Slight
constitutional differences have been observed between certain
varieties: thus, some kinds succeed much better in one part of England
than in another;[807] and it has been noticed that some varieties
require much more moisture than others.[808]

Such flowers as the carnation, common tulip, and hyacinth, which are
believed to be descended, each from a single wild form, present
innumerable varieties, differing almost exclusively in the size, form,
and colour of the flowers. These and some other anciently cultivated
plants which have been long propagated by offsets, pipings, bulbs, &c.,
become so excessively variable, that almost each new plant raised from
seed forms a new variety, "all of which to describe particularly," as
old Gerarde wrote in 1597, "were to roll Sisyphus's stone, or to number
the sands."

_Hyacinth_ (_Hyacinthus orientalis_).--It may, however, be worth while
to give a short account of this plant, which was introduced into
England in 1596 from the Levant.[809] The petals of the original
flower, says Mr. Paul, were narrow, wrinkled, pointed, and of a flimsy
texture; now they are broad, smooth, solid, and rounded. The erectness,
breadth, and length of the whole spike, and the size of the flowers,
have all increased. The colours have been intensified and diversified.
Gerarde, in 1597, enumerates four, and Parkinson, in 1629, eight
varieties. Now