*78 FLORICULTURAL GLEANINGS. 



hollow ball, as the most perfect shape, giving, as his reason for ad- 

 hering to so low a cup, that it gives the best opportunity for inspecting 

 the whole of the interior of the corolla ; and this is perfectly true .• 

 but the most of the north-country amateurs would view a Tulip which 

 had opened to the third of a hollow ball quite in the light of a falling 

 flower, and for this reason would protest against it. 



It is worth while for any amateur who has not paid much attention 

 to this subject to make a few drawings for himself, and he will 

 then soon see that the third, or even the half of a hollow ball is but 

 a very shallow cup. Let him describe three circles of four inches 

 diameter each ; cut one of them into two equal parts, and then he 

 will have a cup four inches wide and two deep, which is about the 

 greatest depth that Mr. Glenny would allow, but which the Northum- 

 brian amateurs would say was " meagre," and rather too shallow. 

 Let him cut off a quarter of the height from his next circle, and he 

 will then have a cup remaining which will be about three inches and 

 a half across the top, and three deep, which is the standard laid down 

 by Mr. Slater at the beginning of his " Descriptive Catalogue." 

 This forms a very fine cup, and there can be no fault found with it 

 but one, and that is, that the petals are then beginning to incline so 

 much inwards that judges would find it rather difficult to inspect the 

 marking of the inside of the petals near the top of the cup. This 

 would be a fatal blemish in form with many of the southern florists. 



Let the inquirer now cut a third from the height of his last circle, 

 and he will then have a cup remaining, which, in my opinion, is de- 

 cidedly preferable to either of the foregoing ; it will be about three 

 inches and three quarters in breadth, and two and a half deep. This 

 seems to me to be the standard nearest perfection, and which will be 

 most likely to please both northern and southern amateurs, how fas- 

 tidious soever they may be. It is not deep enough to be condemned 

 by the southern florists as a long or egg-shaped cup, and is suffi- 

 ciently wide at top, and the petals so little inclined inwards that a 

 complete inspection of the interior of the corolla may easily be made ; 

 and it possesses a sufficient depth to rescue it from condemnation by 

 the Northumbrian judge as a shallow " meagre " cup, or a flower on 

 the point of falling. For all these reasons, therefore, I am inclined to 

 contend that two-thirds of a hollow ball is nearer the true shape 

 than either of the standards above mentioned. 



