“FLAKES” AND “BIZARRES” 17 
the petals; when the flowers have to pass before the 
censor on the exhibition table, he looks carefully to ascer- 
tain if any of the petals lack both colours. Should any 
of them show all purple flakes, or all maroon, it used 
to be a disqualification; but this is not now always 
insisted upon. The same remark applies to Crimson 
Bizarres. These are marked on the petals with crimson 
and purple flakes. Pink Bizarres are marked with pink 
and purple; but the pinks are a more modern section ; the 
colours are paler, and the older class of florists were re- 
luctant to admit soft or pale tints of pink or rose. Some 
twenty-five years ago, I remember examining a very beauti- 
ful rose flake flower named Dorothy, raised from seed by 
the late Mr, Dodwell. It was of a soft rose, well marked 
on a ground of white. I pointed to its beauties in the 
presence of one of the older florists present, but he turned 
away with the remark: “I don’t like it.” The higher 
the colour, the more the flower was esteemed. The Flakes 
were never appreciated so highly as the Bizarres. They 
possess one colour only on the white ground, and they 
are arranged in the following classes :—Scarlet Flakes, on 
a white ground, with the colour arranged as in the Bizarres ; 
Purple Flakes ; and Rose Flakes. In every class perfection 
in the form of the flowers is insisted upon. The white 
ground, especially in the Bizarre classes, is never so pure 
as is desired, but the whiter it is the more the flower is 
esteemed. 
Many amateurs would grow the Flakes and Bizarres 
in their gardens, but they have an idea that they are not 
hardy and that they require greenhouse culture. This is 
incorrect. I have seen the Bizarres and Flakes successfully 
B 
