m 



■rtip 1 



ANTIRRHINUMS i7 



tip the better. The frill, or lip, which falls round the base 

 of the nose should be broad, well spread, and very pure in 

 colour, whatever may be the shade. The tube should be 

 long, symmetrical, and free from a pinched appearance. 

 In selfs the tube should be pure and solid in colour; in the 

 bicolours it should be pure white, free from flecks or 

 splashes of colour. 



The arrangement of the pips upon the stem is an 

 important point. The ideal is a full spike without crowd- 

 ing. It is a serious defect to have a spike so sparsely 

 furnished that an inch or more of bare stem is visible 

 between the pips. The aim should be to show spikes set 

 with blooms facing in all directions round the stem. Do 

 not show spikes that have lost the lower blooms, leaving 

 seed-pods to view, and, on the other hand, it is not good 

 to show half-developed spikes that have too great a pro- 

 portion of unopened flowers and half-formed buds. Stems 

 which are fasciated, bent, or twisted should not be shown. 

 Names of varieties should be neatly written on white 

 cards not more than 2^ inches by i inch. Neat wire 

 holders for the cards are to be preferred rather than 

 heavy-looking sticks. 



Present-Day Varieties. 



It is not my intention to attempt to compile a complete 

 list of the varieties of Antirrhinums now in cultivation. 

 Such a task would not be worth the labour involved, for 

 reference to a few good seedsmen's catalogues will 

 furnish both names and descriptions, and some will be 

 found represented by natural-colour illustrations. 



Moreover, the pace of progress is so rapid that a 

 number of the finest varieties of one season arc super- 

 seded by much superior novelties the next season, so that 

 a list printed in a book of permanent character — if such 

 this little work may be styled — would very soon become 

 out of date and incomplete. 



