THE METROPOLITAN FLORAL EXHIBITIONS. 291 



pared (Proctor), or Standard of Perfection (Keynes), because they 

 are of general good form, and there not being others of the same 

 colour to beat them ; yet had these very flowers been of a different 

 colour, a crimson or red for instance, they would certainly be con- 

 sidered coarse and bad. A really good seedling, therefore, if not new 

 in colour, ought to be a manifest improvement upon all others of the 

 same class already out. 



Size, again, is to some persons an equivalent for other defects, and 

 consequently regularity of outline or perfection of the centre is too 

 often sacrificed thereto. Compactness of form is the most necessary 

 quality to all flowers, consequently unless the size be exceedingly 

 small, it is entirely of a secondary character, and this should neveT be 

 forgotten. 



Compactness in form must not, however, be confounded with 

 extreme doubleness, which is a fault in some of the new sorts ; for 

 in a flower that is too full the petals are prevented developing them- 

 selves properly, and it is, therefore, very defective. Another and 

 more extended fault in Dahlias is, that the centre is not sufficiently 

 high to be even with the surrounding surface ; this is a peculiar 

 blemish, arising from insufficiency in number in the unbloomed 

 petals, and by their inclining too much inwards, so that, when the 

 exterior ones rise and open, the inner remain sunk down. The centre, 

 consequently, to be well up, must be composed of a sufficiency of 

 short and stiff petals, and each regularly disposed. 



The following notes were made from a very careful inspection, and 

 their accuracy may be depended upon. As observed in our last, a 

 considerable number of seedlings were produced, particularly of the 

 " proved" ones, as they are generally called, or those which first 

 bloomed in 1844. By a rule of the Society, six blooms of each of 

 these are required to be placed, and of this year's seedlings one only 

 of each. 



CLASS VI I L 



Seedlings of 1844 : open to all. 



Cer.ljmle <f Merit. — Princess Uadzewell ; Mr. N. Gaines, florist, Batrersea. 

 White, laced with rosy purple; in some of the flower* the colour faded to .the 

 outside. Of the average sze when well grown; centre full and regular ; outline 

 very perfect. The petals are disposed in the utmost regularity, and the flower 

 throughout is remarkably compact and lit for the choicest stand. 



Ceillfcrile of aferil.—Sli Edmund Anlrobus; Mr. J. Keynes, florist, Salis- 

 bury; noticed page 245. Exceedingly compact and symmetrical, and will be 

 grown by most. In one or two of the flowers produced we observed a small 



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