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THE FLOWER GROWER'S GUIDE. 



" It maybe interesting, from a retrospect of more than thirty years with the Auricula 

 and its seedlings, to state, briefly, what progress is perceptible in the amenity of the 

 flower to improvements. 



" It bore the character of being obstinate, almost unmovable. Other florists* 

 flowers might come and go, and their name lists change ; but the Auricula stood 

 alone, and above all this — "A gem of purest ray serene," the Auricula remained, so 

 to say, "a fixed star." If a new gem did at rare intervals appear, it was regarded as 

 but the exception that proved the rule, a thing not given to every one to accomplish,, 

 merely because he chose to try ! 



" It certainly did, in my own case, take some years to strike into a vein of improve- 

 ment; ten, before I raised a correct self. Then, at a bound came "Heroine," with every 

 gift in petal form and zone proportions, and only weak at times through the extreme 

 delicacy of her colour, which requires great care to develop in its true dark shade. 

 Her form and properties of paste and tube have been the foundation of all my best selfs, 

 in which, however, her colour has been much surpassed {e.g., "Midnight," in the 

 coloured illustration, for which see index, is a daughter of hers). 



" First-class selfs, a type of seemingly so simple and single beauty, are still as 

 difficult to raise as any of the more complex " edges." 



" All these w T ill give quantities of self-coloured flowers among their seedlings. But 

 it remains true that an "edged" flower does not know what a good self ought to be; 

 and curious that with all their superiority in substance of petals, they should give us 

 the most flimsy and erratic of selfs among their seedlings. 



" A very cheering point, now plainly visible, is that the distinct character of the 

 different edges is certainly more fixed. Especially has this proved true in green edges, 

 always the class most beloved, and the one in which very few were strictly " pure," i.e. f 

 without a touch of meal upon the emerald green of the edge. 



" The lovely bridal white edges also appear more " settled," while the intermediate 

 grey edge, to which is open the freedom to be more or less mealed, and yet be within 

 the bounds of its character, has so far been the one class in which the fewest fine new 

 varieties, comparatively, have appeared. 



" The raising of seedlings will be found most delightful to any one who truly loves 

 this spring flower. They will pass before him in a long-drawn procession of forms and 

 faces ever new and changing. In the Auricula, the foliage shares with the flower the 

 difference between one variety and another to such an extent that the plants are 



