PRIMULA CONFERENCE. 



199 



recognized ; but in a code of rules forjudging Auriculas, M flakes ' 

 and "stripes" are mentioned as important adornments of the 

 flowers that were in favour in 1732. Mr. Slater, in his " Amateur 

 Florists' Guide," gives a list of proper edged flowers that were in 

 cultivation in 1776, and in my paper, read here in 1882, 1 assumed 

 — I still think properly — that some of these w T ere in existence in 

 1750 or earlier. The varieties known as Potts's Eclipse, Rule 

 Arbiter, and Hortaine were in cultivation in 1757. About 1785 

 the edged varieties were plentiful, and amongst them were 

 Grimes's Privateer, Popplewell's Conqueror, Gorton's Champion, 

 and Wrigley's Northern Hero, which are still in cultivation, not 

 as archa3ological curiosities, but because they are good, and have 

 retained their initial vigour as cultivated plants for upwards of a 

 hundred years. 



In fixing a date for the earliest record of an undoubted edged 

 flower, I am indebted for valuable aid to my friend Mr. Harrison 

 Weir, w T ho, in a communication to the Gardeners' Chronicle of 

 May 6, 1882, refers to Sir Thomas Moore's " Flower Garden Dis- 

 played," published 1734. In this work many Auriculas are 

 described, some of them introduced from Holland, and others 

 raised in this country. It is important to note that the Dutch 

 and the English varieties appear to differ as Alpines and true 

 Auriculas, both classes finding favour here, but the English 

 raisers having an especial affection for Auriculas proper, as apart 

 from the Alpine section. Now it is of the highest importance to 

 observe, that amongst many flowers of a class known as " painted 

 ladies," because delicately improved, as the ladies of that day 

 were, with a dusting of white powder, several are described as 

 striped, and one as distinctly edged. The edged flower is called 

 Honour and Glory ; it is said to have " a good white eye, and the 

 flower striped with a dark reddish purple on a white ground, so 

 as to leave the edge of the flower white." I repeat that this con- 

 tribution to the history is important, because it not only places 

 before us an undoubted edged flower, but it shows that the differ- 

 ence between stripes and edges was recognized. More than this, 

 it shows that striped flowers w T ere much valued, for one called the 

 Royal Widow w r as sold for ten guineas, but the value of the edged 

 flower is not suggested. It would be delightful could we find in 

 the winning stands of the present season an example of the edged 

 flower of 1734, which was very different to Parkinson's green 



