ON florists' flowers. 



47 



Lancashire), is inferior to the preceding. It has not such a perfect 

 grey edge ; in fact, the farina is so thinly scattered on the edge, 

 that the variety may sometimes be exhibited as a Green-Edged. 



White-Edged. — This class is distinguished from the Grey by 

 the greater density of the farina on the margin ; it is so 

 thickly powdered as^ in some instances to be almost as white as 

 the centre. In recent years a good many fine varieties have 

 been added to this class. Perhaps the most typical, when 

 seen at its best, is Acme (Read) ; Conservative (Douglas) is a 

 flower well up in all the properties, and Mrs. Dodwell (Woodhead) 

 is also a first-class White-Edge. A fault in the section, and one 

 from which the Grey-Edged varieties are not exempt, is the 

 body or ground-colour being less or more dusted with powder. 

 A pretty old variety, Catherina (Summerscales), has this fault, as 

 also has Lee's Earl Grosvenor. 



Selfs. — In this class there is a margin of yellow, bluish-violet, 

 violet, purplish-maroon, and maroon. The additions to it in 

 recent years have been numerous, and have quite superseded 

 the older varieties. The best are : Heroine (Horner), purplish- 

 maroon ; Black Bess (Woodhead), maroon; and Mrs. Potts 

 (Barlow), a lovely violet, whose fault is a long, weak flower-stem. 



Alpine Auriculas. — The characteristics of this section are that 

 the flowers and leaves are destitute of farina ; the centre instead 

 of being white, is yellow- or cream-coloured ; and the edge of 

 one colour is darker at the centre, and shades to a paler tint 

 at the margin. The prettiest Alpine Auriculas are those with a 

 deep yellow centre, and a maroon - shaded edge. They are, 

 perhaps, not hardier than the Show x\uriculas, but the flowers 

 are not much injured by rains. Auriculas of this section are 

 grown, and sometimes exhibited, with unshaded edges ; but they 

 have a heavy, dead appearance, and cannot successfully compete 

 with those having a shaded edge. The prevaihng colours of 

 the Alpine Auricula are maroon, reddish-maroon, coppery-yellow, 

 mauve, and purplish. 



Propagation. — This is effected by seed and by offsets. The 

 seed should be sown as soon as it is ripe— in July, a season of 

 the year when it readily vegetates. It may be sown in small 

 seed-pans or in flower-pots, and as soon as the first leaf is 

 formed after the seed-leaves, the young plants should be pricked 

 out — about a dozen of them in a small sixty-sized pot. At 

 first the growth is rather slow, and the plants will take from 

 twelve to eighteen months to attain their full size. They will 



