the varieties are very numerous, and they were still
more numerous a century ago. Mr. Paul remarks that "it is interesting
to compare the Hyacinths of 1629 with those of 1864, and to mark the
improvement. Two hundred and thirty-five years have elapsed since then,
and this simple flower serves well to illustrate the great fact that
the original forms of nature do not remain fixed and stationary, at
least when brought under cultivation. While looking at the extremes, we
must not however forget that there are intermediate stages which are
for the most part lost to us. Nature will {371} sometimes indulge
herself with a leap, but as a rule her march is slow and gradual." He
adds that the cultivator should have "in his mind an ideal of beauty,
for the realisation of which he works with head and hand." We thus see
how clearly Mr. Paul, an eminently successful cultivator of this
flower, appreciates the action of methodical selection.

In a curious and apparently trustworthy treatise, published at
Amsterdam[810] in 1768, it is stated that nearly 2000 sorts were then
known; but in 1864 Mr. Paul found only 700 in the largest garden at
Haarlem. In this treatise it is said that not an instance is known of
any one variety reproducing itself truly by seed: the white kinds,
however, now[811] almost always yield white hyacinths, and the yellow
kinds come nearly true. The hyacinth is remarkable from having given
rise to varieties with bright blue, pink, and distinctly yellow
flowers. These three primary colours do not occur in the varieties of
any other species; nor do they often all occur even in the distinct
species of the same genus. Although the several kinds of hyacinths
differ but slightly from each other except in colour, yet each kind has
its own individual character, which can be recognised by a highly
educated eye; thus the writer of the Amsterdam treatise asserts (p. 43)
that some experienced florists, such as the famous G. Voorholm, seldom
failed in a collection of above twelve hundred sorts to recognise each
variety by the bulb alone! This same writer mentions some few singular
variations: for instance, the hyacinth commonly produces six leaves,
but there is one kind (p. 35) which scarcely ever has more than three
leaves; another never more than five; whilst others regularly produce
either sev