NEW ZEALAND GARDENING. 115 



soon as the leaves turn yellow, the bulbs should be taken up 

 and laid upon a mat to dry. When the leaves are all quite 

 decayed remove them carefully, without bruising the bulbs, 

 and then put them away in a dry cool room till the planting 

 season comes round again. 



Pansy. There are three classes i. Selfs, all of one 

 colour. 2. Having yellow, orange, sulphur, or straw-coloured 

 ground, with margins of maroon, crimson, chocolate, bronze, 

 puce, and their intermediate tints. 3. Having a white 

 ground with margins of purple, blue, mulberry, and their 

 intermediate tints. 



Characteristics of a Shoiv Pansy. Many have written 

 upon the characteristics which belong to it when really a 

 superior flower, and their opinions are combined in the fol- 

 lowing : i. Each bloom should be nearly perfectly circular, 

 flat, and very smooth at the edge ; every notch or uneven- 

 ness being a blemish. 2. The petals should be thick, and 

 of a rich velvety texture. 3. Whatever may be the colours, 

 the principal, or ground colour of the three lower petals 

 should be alike ; whether it be white, yellow, straw colour, 

 plain, fringed, or blotched, there should not in these three 

 petals be a shade difference in the principal colour ; and the 

 white, yellow or straw-colour should be pure. 4. Whatever 

 may be the character of the marks or darker pencillings on 

 the ground colour, they should be bright, dense, distinct, 

 and retain their character, without running or flushing, that 

 is, mixing with the ground colour. 5. The two upper petals 

 should be perfectly uniform, whether dark or light, or 

 fringed or blotched. The two petals immediately under 

 them should be alike ; and the lower petal, as before 

 observed, must have the same ground colour and character 

 as the two above it ; and the pencilling or marking of the 

 eye in the three lower petals must not break through to the 

 edges. 6. If flowers are equal in other respects, the larger, if 

 not the coarser, is the better ; but no flower should be 

 shown that is under one inch and a-half across. 7. Ragged 

 or notched edges, crumpled petals, indentures on the petal, 

 indistinct markings or pencillings, and flushed or run colours, 

 are great blemishes ; but if a bloom has one ground colour 



