PICOTEE. 19 



principal first prizes were carried off by Mr. Charles Turner 

 and Mr. E. S. Dodwell, the first representing the commer- 

 cial cultivators, the second the amateurs. The fact seems 

 to prove the rarity of first-class skill in handling these 

 flowers, for with any approach to equality of power in 

 the competitions the prizes must have been more freely 

 divided. 



The National Carnation and Picotee Society, founded 

 in 1851, has established on a firm basis the standard of 

 technical merit in these flowers, while leaving a liberal 

 margin for the introduction of new forms, should they arise, 

 as also for new methods of displaying them, for it is only 

 in certain classes that strict compliance with fixed rules 

 is required. The picotee class has acquired special and 

 peculiar interest, from the introduction of flowers with a 

 yellow ground and sharply-defined and brightly-coloured 

 edges. It is no new thing to see yellow in these flowers, 

 for Parkinson rejoiced in the "yelow or orenge-tawny 

 gilloflower." But the yellow-ground picotee, as now 

 known, is a modern creation, for which we are indebted to 

 Mr. Richard Smith, of Witney, Oxon., who, in the year 

 1858, in the exhibition at Moira, took all the prizes offered 

 for flowers of this class. He had refashioned it by cross- 

 ing and selecting, and he had his reward. Among the 

 finest yellow-ground picotees seen by the present gene-ra- 

 tion of florists was one shown by Mr. James Douglas, 

 of the gardens at Great Gearies, Ilford, in the exhibition 

 of the National Society, 1886. It bears the name of 

 Annie Douglas, who should be proud of her own and 

 her father's flower. 



It may be an advantage to amateur cultivators of these 

 flowers to remark that they are less hardy than carnations, 



