23 



The colours should not be liable to fly, as is the defect 

 of Stretch's Alexander, the colours of which fade in 

 3 or 4 days. 



Of the plant. — 1. The stem should be strong, 

 round, upright, elastic, bearing the truss upright 

 without support, and from four to seven inches high, 

 so as to carry the truss well above the leaves. 



2. The length and strength of the footstalks of 

 the pips should be so proportioned to the number 

 and size of these that all the pips may have room 

 to show themselves, and to form a close compact 

 truss of flowers, not less than seven in num.ber, 

 without lapping over each other. The pips should 

 be all alike in colour, size and form, so as not to be 

 easily distinguished from one another, for otherwise 

 the unity and harmony of the truss will be destroyed, 

 and although ever so beautifully formed, would ap- 

 pear as if taken from different sorts of Auricula. 

 An Auricula ought to blow freely, and expand all its 

 pips at the same time, for by this means the colours 

 in them all will appear equally fresh and lively ; where- 

 as in those that do not blow som.e of the pips till 

 others have passed their prime, the whole appearance 

 of the truss is impaired.* (Emmerton on the Auri- 

 cula, 16.) 



* To remedy this defect, it is usual not to tliin the pips too 

 much soon after they appear, so that those which are so forward 

 may be cut away, and the remaining pips will then bloom 

 equally alike. 



