292 THE FLORIST. 



and not exclusively referable to either. Neither do I wish to see a 

 large and heterogeneous class compounded of the nondescripts of all 

 classes. The very notion savours of the slovenly ; of the attempt to 

 avoid trouble, which is the natural inheritance of those who live in a 

 world in which there are no hard outlines, in which even the animal 

 and the vegetable kingdoms are interlaced, and much more green-edged 

 Auriculas and grey. At present, cultivation has elicited from the 

 original species Primula Auricula no more than four legitimate classes 

 of varieties, but it has established those. And admitting, as I do, the 

 necessary imperfection of all classification, I shall be perfectly satisfied 

 when 1 exhibit Duke of Cambridge, Lancashire, Sir John Moore, True 

 Briton, and other borderers, to leave it to the appointed judges to 

 apportion the items of compensation, and to settle how much must be 

 detracted from the merit of any of these on account of an undecided 

 edge, and yet leave it an ornament to the stand, and a promising 

 candidate for a prize. " D." is quite right in saying a grey with a 

 dash of green in it is often the most attractive condition of an edged 

 Auricula. It is so, and yet the condition itself may be an inferior one, 

 and allowance ought to be made accordingly in deciding on the claim to 

 a prize. It is a defect, but not a disqualification. It is a defect, though 

 in some specimens, and under certain circumstances, it adds to the 

 beauty ; this is not uncommon. Angularity in any of the zones is an 

 analogous case ; in the abstract, and generally, it deteriorates. In 

 Imperator, Fletcher's Ne Plus Ultra, and some others, it adds positively 

 to the effect. Yet it also must be allowed for, though not to the 

 same extent, in apportioning a prize. 



It is the more important now to settle the principles that are to guide 

 our estimate of the properties of this flower, because we are getting to 

 greater variety in the newer seedlings than heretofore ; and it is 

 unworthy of men of sense to cling to old landmarks, which were good 

 in their time, but which nature itself has now made obsolete. It may 

 move a smile in the possessor of Chapman's Mowers, to hear them 

 derided by nicknames, but it will be a smile of satisfaction at conscious 

 possession. 



Populus me sibilat ; at mihi plaudo ipse domi. Such treatment 

 will not retard for a day the growing desire in others to possess them 

 also when they see them. 01 course it will not. We are not children ; 

 we trust our own eyes, not the ipse dixit of self-constituted authorities. 

 The colours of these varieties are unequalled, of one of them 

 unapproached ; and, if they have faults, they share that property with 

 every Auricula grown, while they are confessedly the greatest ornaments 

 of our stages. Let those faults therefore be carefully estimated in 

 demerit, as their beauties for merit, and the fair balance struck. One 

 of the benefits of a National show, and of large stands, will be the 

 bringing together well -grown examples of the best of Dickson's, Chap- 

 man's, Lightbody's, Headly's, and other modern raisers, with the 

 Colonel Taylors, Freedoms, and Privateers, of more established 

 repute ; and I for one have no doubt that the modems will have no 

 reason to regret the comparison, even though some recent ones of high 

 name and price, will, I think, be consigned to a more modest position 

 than they now hold in the catalogues. 



