140 BRIEF REMARKS. 



rest, if Mr. Edwards persist in the unfloristlike withdrawal of the test 

 applied ever since showing was the fashion .'' Why, on Mr. Edwards. 

 It is an insult to a good florist to propose that he shall show his flowers 

 with a card. It is a reflection on the best florists of the day, to intro- 

 duce a system that shall enable every man to mask his flowers, and 

 force a good grower to hide by a card that portion of his flowers which 

 it is his pride to show in health and perfection ; for notwithstanding 

 the Irish language in which the eighth proposed rule is couched — not- 

 withstanding it is impossible to conform to it, until a thing " covered" 

 is a thing " exposed," we all know what it means. It does not mean 

 that the pod shall be exposed, but it does mean that the card shall in 

 part cover it. Let any florist (we speak of those who can command a 

 good bloom by their skill, and not of those who rely on numbers for 

 the chances of finding enough, and who would rejoice in the toleration 

 of split pods), let any florist see the various means by which cards are 

 kept in their places, and say that pods can be exposed. "We have seen 

 the best growers, after the judges have done tlieir work, carding the 

 flowers : some cut their cards so tliat Vandyke springs, as it were, cover 

 the best or largest portion of the pod ; others drag the stems and pods 

 through pieces of paper ; something must be done to keep the cards up 

 in their places, and hide the pods, whereas the pride of a good florist 

 is to show that he can get a good bloom without damaging his pod ; 

 the pride of a good flower is that it shall bloom freely without burst- 

 ing. What but a determination to raise two parties in the floral 

 world, can be tlie object of changing the tests by which skill in raising 

 and skill in blooming are to be recognized ? We are not prepared to 

 cast a slur upon thousands of old florists whose lessons we respect, and 

 who have always regarded the slightest lie or card as a disqualifying 

 blotch ; and however much we may respect Mr. Edwards and his 

 motives, we can tell him that his proposal, which is only carrying out 

 Mr. Lightbody's, Mr. Slater's, Mr, Barringer's, Mr. Twitchett's, and 

 twenty other growers' notions, is popular ; but if he persists in siiowing 

 on cards, there will be a worse split than ever deranged floriculture 

 before, and that on him alone will rest the responsibility. That he 

 will get up a show there is no doubt ; but if he, or any other grower, 

 will tell us seriously that it will be half so good, or be competed at by 

 half so many good florists, as it would with the old honest way of 

 showing, we should contradict him with nearly forty letters from res- 

 pectable florists, who thank us for the stand we have made in behalf of 

 fair, open, honest showing, and who declare that those who choose to 

 create a new division in floriculture, may show by themselves. We 

 have felt half inclined to publish these letters, because manj^ are from 

 men whose names would carry weight ; but we are in hopes that the 

 good sense of all classes will prevail sufficiently to force the abandon- 

 ment of so discreditable a proposition as judging carnations and picotees 

 on cards. g. g. 



To the Northern Groioers of the Carnntion and Picotee. 

 Genti^emen, — Enabled by the conrtesy of the editor of this excel- 

 lent work, to address you, I beg to invite your attention to the remarks 

 of Mr. Edwards, at pages 47 and 101, on the difference, or assumed 

 difference of opinion existing between northern and southern culti- 



