Flowers, FLORISTS', are those numerous forms of flowering plants which, having an inherent tendency to vary in the colour and size of their flowers and in habit when reared from seed, have received special attention in cultivation and in selection with the view of bringing their floral qualities up to ideal standards of excellence formed by the common consent of florists for each particular variety. Thus, for instance, the pansy, one of the most familiar of florists' flowers, is in all its wonderful variety the progeny of Viola tricolor, a widely distributed native of Britain. Its natural tendency to seminal variation rendered it a very facile subject in the hands of the florist, as may be seen by comparing the puny, unequal, and flabby flowers of the natural forms of the species with the large, circular, substantial, and brilliantly coloured blooms of the florists' varieties. This has been achieved by the intelligent application of the principle of selection, the object being the attainment of a given ideal respecting the size, form, substance, and colour of the flowers. The petals are the only parts affected in this case; they are enlarged in breadth and length, their substance or thickness is increased, and their outline is rendered more symmetrical, but the other organs of the flower are not changed. As with the pansy, so it has been with every other kind of plant bearing single flowers in the florists' category. It is different with those kinds whose flowers are double, such as the carnation, anemone, hollyhock, ranunculus, rose, &c. In these the essential organs of the flowers have been wholly or partially metamorphosed into petals. But the so-called double flowers of dahlias, chrysanthemums, and other forms of the natural order Compositæ are not really double in this sense; the fertilising organs are not changed to petals in their case; but the tubular florets of the disc assume the strap-like shape of those of the ray, and hence the semblance of double flowers in such cases.
The Dutch were the first among European nations to cultivate systematically florists' flowers: to them is due the merit of having brought the Tulip (q.v.), the hyacinth, the anemone, the ranunculus, and the rose to the high degree of perfection their numerous varieties now present. The French florists have also had a large share in the improvement of the three last-named classes. British florists have distinguished themselves more, particularly in the production of auriculas, polyanthus, the phlox, pentstemon, carnation, pink, hollyhock, dahlia, pansy, pelargonium, &c. But the Chinese and Japanese appear to have fostered the culture of many flowers in the same way as the European florists, long prior to the latter having done so. Camellias, azaleas, and tree-peonies were some of their favourite florists' flowers long before Europeans had much intercourse with the Chinese.
New varieties are obtained chiefly from seeds, but some also are obtained by sports, which, in the language of the florist, mean freaks of nature. Thus, the flowers on a certain shoot of a plant may perhaps exhibit features of a kind novel and distinct from those of the parent, and the variety, if worthy of being perpetuated, is propagated by cuttings or by grafting, according to the mode best adapted to the kind. If the variation becomes fixed or permanent a new sort is thereby obtained without direct seminal intervention; but this does not always follow, although a keen florist will never allow such an opportunity to escape without an attempt to improve it. Varieties of special merit in any class of florists' flowers can only be perpetuated by cuttings, layering, grafting, or division, because they cannot be relied upon to reproduce themselves from seed.