262 THE FLORIST. 



essentials, and those are novelty, freedom of bloom, good habit — both 

 of plant and flower-truss, and fideUty of colours. The critical amateur 

 ^^'ill add form, and so he should ; yet even he wdll fmd his stage not 

 perfect \\'ithout some flowers defective in this respect — Hoyle's J\Iagnet, 

 for instance, which has no claim to form, and which is most effective 

 under canvas. A variety of circumstances have ^^dthdra^^'n my atten- 

 tion ahnost entirely from my favourite pursuit; but, retainmg all my 

 old partiaUties, I have watched the opening of this year's seedlings 

 \dth great interest, and I shall be greatly disappointed if, in a few 

 seasons hence, there are not produced some decided novelties in 

 colour. It is to be hoped attention will be kept to Ught flowers, a 

 point in which most stages are too deficient. What a gem a pure white 

 ^^'ith good scarlet blotch would prove ! 



Worto?i Cottage, Isleworth. E. Beck. 



THE PINK. 



At the termination of another season, and while the blooms of 1854 are 

 fresh on our memory, we will briefly record our impressions of what 

 has been doing ^vith the Puik since our last notice in the Florist for 

 August, 1853 ; and this is the more necessary as there are so many 

 new varieties coming under notice for the first time. 



The early blooms this season had a tendency to be rough on the edge 

 and but imperfectly laced. As the season advanced they bloomed much 

 better. The display of this flower at the Royal Botanic Society's July 

 exhibition was the best of the season, the flowers being generally as 

 good as we remember to have seen them, being weU laced, of good size, 

 and without confused centres. Allo^snng for the influence the season 

 has exercised on some varieties, our opinions given a twelvemonth since 

 have proved tolerably correct. In speaking, then, of Mr. Bragg's 

 flowers, we placed James Hogg as the best, and it undoubtedly is, 

 although the lacing is occasionally too faint. Tlie blooms of this variety 

 exhibited at Basingstoke by Mr. Surman, gardener to J. C. Roberts, Esq., 

 Twyford, near Winchester, showed as perfect a Pink as we remember 

 to have seen. Dr. Maclean's flowers have exceeded our expectations, 

 ha^^ng all — with the exception of Great Criterion, the plants of which 

 suffered so much during the long severe wdnter, that they never finally 

 recovered — proved most satisfactorily. New Criterion is a most superb 

 flower, and opens dark purple, which changes to rosy purple as it ages, 

 and is in either state a charming flower, full and smooth on the edges. 

 Brunette, a heavily laced dark variety, is also a bold noble flower, and 

 has the largest petal and widest marking of any flower we know, and, 

 heavily laced as it is, there is a large space of white in each of the large 

 broad petals. Adonis, another of Dr. Maclean's seedhngs, is a chaste 

 smooth flower, very clear in its markings, petals smooth, and laced \\ath 

 sofl rosy purple. ]\Irs. Norman, as shown by Mr. Baker, of Woolwich, 

 has a very fine petal, and is altogether a first class flower. Hale's 



