JUDGING CUT BLOOMS. 97 



CHAPTER XVIII 



JUDGING CUT BLOOMS. 



The man who undertakes to discharge 'the duties of a 

 judge at any flower show must be a man of knowledge, 

 experience, and good judgment. He must have taste; he 

 must be level-headed; he must have the critical faculty 

 developed; and he must be blessed with that by no means 

 common gift namely, common-sense. All these qualities, 

 and others which I need not stop to enumerate, are required 

 of the judge at a chrysanthemum exhibition, and more 

 especially in respect of the cut blooms section. In this 

 department competition is usually very keen indeed, and 

 a long and varied experience has taught me that in the 

 vast majority of cases, where the level of excellence is high, 

 unless the " point " system is adopted it is impossible for 

 a judge to come to a fair decision. Where two or more 

 judges are working together, any strong personal predilec- 

 tions are repressed; for it is hardly possible that two or 

 three men will hold precisely the same opinion as to what 

 constitutes a perfect 'bloom. The chief advantage of the 

 point system of judging is that it enables an exhibitor to 

 see which of his 'blooms (if any) were considered perfect, 

 or which failed to come up to the standard, and by how 

 much they fell short of it. 



And here let me enter a protest against the present 

 tendency of judges to lean strongly in favour of mere size. 

 Some chrysanthemum judges seem to regard the rule 

 measure as the supreme test, and give perfection of form 

 and beauty of colour a secondary place. For my part, I 

 venture to think this is a serious mistake. Mere bulk 

 should not outweigh other considerations, and, personally, 

 I should place colouring and Asymmetry before size. lit is, 

 to my mind, always a pity when a beautiful flower, perfect 

 in colour and shape, and measuring, say, six and a half 

 inches across, is passed over and the award given to 

 another flower measuring nine inches across but inferior 

 in other essentials. 



