PRIMULA CONFERENCE. 



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ancestral. Self's have generally a shorter duration of bloom than 

 the edged flowers, which possess greater stoutness of petal, and 

 in which the green, whether pure or mealed, is a colour of 

 greater and more leaf-like vitality. 



It might be theoretical to suppose that, if selfs were crossed 

 with these a greater substance of petal would be transmitted. 

 In practice, however, it is found that all seed from purely edged 

 parents produces a majority of self varieties, and vast numbers 

 of these are notched, and frilled, and flimsy flowers. I have 

 never had wilder flights of seedling selfs than from that grand 

 grey- edge, George Lightbody. It would almost seem that an 

 " edge " did not know what a good self ought to be. 



I think that for selfs we should work patiently among them- 

 selves, advancing in substance as we certainly are by sure if 

 slow degrees, and not weakening the newly acquired and most 

 supreme point of the " rose-leaved " or perfectly rounded petal. 



Another point to aim at in the development of the self is the 

 addition of some that would be constitutionally later in blooming 

 than most of those we have. Campbell's Duke of Argyll (rich 

 crimson, but deeply notched) might transmit this habit, and be 

 overruled in this fault. 



The Auricula bloom in a collection loses much of its power 

 and beauty when the quiet yet emphatic selfs are gone. It is 

 like the beginning of the end, as when in the fading summer the 

 swallows take their flight. 



Edged Flowers. — With reference to improvement in form in 

 the green, grey, and white edges, I would remark that in these, 

 good form, beyond its intrinsic value, has an influence inductive 

 of other good properties. Rounded petals are associated with 

 roundness of the white-mealed circle termed the " paste ; " while 

 with the pointed petal the paste is often, as by a kind of sym- 

 pathy, drawn into corresponding irregularities ; which only 

 intensify the serious fault of an angular appearance. 



For form's sake, naturally, such flowers as have the roundest, 

 broadest petals will be selected ; and such a variety as George 

 Lightbody, among those well known and distributed at present, 

 will serve as a type. 



If good form in both parents should justify it, my conclusions 

 are that edged flowers should be crossed with their class fellows ; 

 for one line of improvement in the Auricula certainly lies in 



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