WHERE FLOWERS CAME FROM.

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 300, 2 March 1878, Page 4

WHERE FLOWERS CAME FROM.

Some of our flowers came from lands of perpetual summer, some from countries all ice and snow, some from islands in the ocean. Three of our sweetest exotics came originally from Peru ; the tamciia was carried to England in 1739, and a few years afterwards the heliotrope and mignonette. Several others came from the Cape of Good Hope ; a very large calla was found in ditches there, and some of the most brilliant geraniums, or pelargoniums,which are spurious geranium. The verbena grows wild in Brazil; the marigold is an African flower, and a great number from China and Japan. The little Daphne was carried to England by Captain Ross, from almost the farthest land lie visited towards the North Pole. Some of these are cpiite changed in form by cultivation ; others have only become larger and blighter; while others, despite of all the care of florists and the shelter of hot houses, fall far short of the beauty and fragrance of the tropics. Among improved ones is the dahlia. When brought to Europe it was a very simple blossom, a single circle of dark petals surrounding a mass of yellow ones. Others, with scarlet and orange petals, were soon after transplanted from Mexico but still remained simple floweis. Long years of cultivation in rich soil, with other aits of skilful florists, have changed it to what it now is—a round ball of beauty. —Riverside Magazine.