"FLAKES" AND "BIZARRES" 17 



the petals ; when the flowers have to pass before the 

 censor on the exhibition table, he looks carefully to ascer- 

 tain if any of the petals lack both colours. Should any 

 of them show all purple flakes, or all maroon, it used 

 to be a disqualification ; but this is not now always 

 insisted upon. The same remark applies to Crimson 

 Bizarres. These are marked on the petals with crimson 

 and purple flakes. Pink Bizarres are marked with pink 

 and purple ; but the pinks are a more modern section ; the 

 colours are paler, and the older class of florists were re- 

 luctant to admit soft or pale tints of pink or rose. Some 

 twenty-five years ago, I remember examining a very beauti- 

 ful rose flake flower named Dorothy, raised from seed by 

 the late Mr. Dodwell. It was of a soft rose, well marked 

 on a ground of white. I pointed to its beauties in the 

 presence of one of the older florists present, but he turned 

 away with the remark : " I don't like it." The higher 

 the colour, the more the flower was esteemed. The Flakes 

 were never appreciated so highly as the Bizarres. They 

 possess one colour only on the white ground, and they 

 are arranged in the following classes : Scarlet Flakes, on 

 a white ground, with the colour arranged as in the Bizarres ; 

 Purple Flakes ; and Rose Flakes. In every class perfection 

 in the form of the flowers is insisted upon. The white 

 ground, especially in the Bizarre classes, is never so pure 

 as is desired, but the whiter it is the more the flower is 

 esteemed. 



Many amateurs would grow the Flakes and Bizarres 

 in their gardens, but they have an idea that they are not 

 hardy and that they require greenhouse culture. This is 

 incorrect. I have seen the Bizarres and Flakes successfully 



B 



