THE CARNATION MANUAL. 73 



always found to proceed from those unfamiliar 

 with the objects and conditions of competition. 

 The practice is one which sanctions the removal, in 

 the case of bizarred or flaked flowers, of a "run 

 petal" — that is, a petal wholly without white, 

 or of one wholly without colour, the presence of 

 either of which in such circumstances is analogous 

 to a discordant note in a piece of music ; and as 

 the most richly marked petals will often be hidden 

 under others of inferior character, it permits the 

 bringing forward and displaying of these so that 

 the full merits of the bloom may be visible at once 

 to the judges : just as an entomologist might display 

 the rich markings of moth or butterfly which would 

 have escaped appreciation unfolded to the eye. 



It is a practice wholly confined to blooms set up 

 for competition, and as such there can be no 

 objection to it, while it has much to recommend 

 it both from the judges' and exhibitors' point of 

 view. 



Again, much is often unduly attributed to the 

 dresser's powers, especially by those who neither 

 acquire his simple art nor take the needful trouble 

 to grow their blooms into show form. All such it 

 may be well to remind that though the dresser 

 may develop he cannot create. He cannot make 

 poor flowers into fine ones. I would advise young 

 growers not to be misled by the tirades of the one 

 set of critics nor discouraged by the jeremiads of 



