REMARKS ON THE PINK, ETC. 87 



were confined to the portrait of this flower; and I again assert that 

 if it be a correct likeness it is a confused and shapeless mass. I beg 

 to refer him to the work in which this portrait is to be found; it is in 

 Wakeling's " Florists and Amateurs' Guide " for the month of July, 

 1841. 



The remarks on my allusion to Garratt's Alpha are very vague, as 

 it is rather a curious coincidence that he has not yet grown a suffi- 

 cient quantity to enable him to form an opinion upon it, particularly 

 as this is the crack flower of the metropolitan fanciers; and, besides, 

 he professes to grow plants for competitors, who, doubtless, must 

 have had this particular variety in their collections. I observe he 

 admits my remarks, or, as otherwise expressed, attack ! on Omega ; 

 for I find his statement is, " with all its defects I shall never discard 

 it from my collection." 



I was not aware it would have been considered such a responsible 

 undertaking in expressing a candid opinion on the merits of a flower, 

 or in stating by what standard its properties should be defined, or I 

 certainly should have paused before I ventured to solicit Mr. Ibbett's 

 opinion on the subject. 



I collect, from the concluding passage of his remarks, that he 

 declines furnishing a descriptive list of flowers, and considers no one 

 capable of expressing an opinion, or laying down any criterion for 

 attaining perfection, but the exhibitors at certain societies in his 

 neighbourhood, and to whose awards and transactions he refers us for 

 the description of the properties of first-rate flowers, overlooking the 

 circumstance that the proceedings of such societies are inaccessible to 

 parties residing hundreds of miles from the places where these exhi- 

 bitions are held. " Here break we off." 



A Midland County, 10th March, 1844. 



ARTICLE VI. 



REMARKS ON THE PINK, Ac- 

 hy HK. WILLIAM DENT, JUN., OF PRESTON, LANCASHIRE. 



I am sorry to notice so great a want of cordiality in the south country 

 florists towards their brethren in the north, and to observe a specimen 

 of the fact in the reply of Mr. Ihbett to Florista, inserted in the 

 March Number of the Cabinet, where he so unjustly attacks the 



