REPORT ON TIIE 



transition far from uncommon. Wo havo examples not only in 

 the Primrose, but also in the Chrysanthemum, Hyacinth, Tulip, 

 Pansy, Carnation, Hollyhock, and Antirrhinum. If you wander 

 about in search of a source of the red and purple tones in show 

 Auriculas, you will never find means to account for the brilliant 

 violet-bluo body colour of the variety known as Colonol Champ- 

 neys, whilst others may be found that are apparently equally far 

 removed from the possibilities of the botanical colourist. The 

 truth appears to be that the colours we cannot by direct descent 

 account for are in reality self-evolved, and belong to the category 

 of changes that accompany and follow cultivation. In other 

 words, these colours, with other characters that might with equal 

 reason perplex us, are in a certain sense laid on by the hand of 

 the cultivator. It is tho fear of the botanist, who cannot re- 

 cognize any merit in his brother the florist, that prompts him to 

 find in this or that flower that the hand of man has left un- 

 touched the sources of properties that the florist has developed 

 by long-continued cultivation in view of an ideal model, towards 

 the realization of which he is ever striving but nover attaining, 

 though happy in the endeavour, and justly though quietly proud 

 of what so far has been actually accomplished. To obtain tho 

 two great classes of Auriculas from Primula pubescens is a greater 

 extravagance on the part of Professor Kerner than any florist has 

 ventured on as yet ; but the florists have discovered long since 

 that seeds derived from show flowers do not produce Alpine 

 varieties ; and, on the other hand, it is all in vain to hope for 

 edged varieties from the seods of the Alpine section. The general 

 acceptance by the botanists of the proposal of Professor Kerner, 

 shows how much they need in their researches the aid of men 

 who have acquired experience in the raising of new varieties 

 of garden flowers, and in the management of garden plants 

 generally. 



Parkinson, 250 years ago, had a green flower with a purple 

 e.lge. That must have been in existence long anterior to the 

 writing of tho M Paradisus." It is not extravagant to entertain the 

 supposition that it had been in existence hundreds or thousands 

 of years before. In the same collection were striped flowers, and 

 these appear to have increased until in the early part of the 

 eighteenth century they abounded. Then, again, we hear of an 

 edged flower, called Honour and Glory, in the year 1732, when Sir 



