FLORICULTURAL MILLINERY. 507 



Hyacinths all these practices are, in our judgment, of 

 questionable taste, and of even more questionable honesty. 

 By the use of them we may approach more nearly to the 

 florist's ideal, but we are reaching that ideal by trickery 

 and deception, rather than by horticultural skill and honest 

 labour. 



Do not let us be misunderstood. We are not here 

 questioning the florist's canons, most of which we admit to 

 be founded on common sense and correct taste ; it is the 

 means often adopted to reach them that we take up the 

 pen to do battle with. 



Is this " millinery " desirable ? We think not, and on 

 other grounds than those we have already advanced. It 

 has always appeared to us that the decline in the cultiva- 

 tion of florists' flowers, or in what used to be popularly so 

 called, is due in some measure to this floricultural millinery. 

 A judge may be hoodwinked, a competitor may be 

 jockeyed by it. But the public how does it affect them ? 

 They view, admire, and purchase from these highly-dressed 

 flowers, but in their hands, even under the most skilful 

 cultivation, the antecedents are never realised. Hence 

 disappointment ensues, a suspicion of deception is 

 awakened, discouragement is the result, and the flowers 

 themselves go out of fashion. 



We cannot but think, then, that in justice to the 

 public, and in the interests of exhibitors themselves, this 

 is a state of things which it is most desirable to remedy. 

 And the remedy lies with the judges. If exhibitors find 

 the arts above hinted at to tell with the judges, they will 

 continue to practise them. Perhaps no rules of any society 

 can be made clear or stringent enough to ensure the 

 desired end. But horticultural societies might justly 

 intimate to exhibitors that the judges would be instructed 

 to recognise the skill of the horticulturist, rather than the 

 mode of the artist, and if the judges carried out such 

 instructions this would doubtless soon work a beneficial 

 change. 



