228 



REPORT ON THE 



them at their third bloom. Some faults are decisive, such as 

 the piii eye, the pale tube, the angular paste, the notched or 

 pointed petal. Of such there is no hope. But if properties of 

 tube and paste and petal are fine, I do not discard the seedling 

 because, at its maiden bloom, the proportions and other qualities 

 of the ground-colour and edge ma} 7 not be correct. There may 

 be a good flower in disguise. 



ALPINE AURICULAS. 



I pass on now to a brief notice of that other division of the 

 Auricula as a florist flower, which is technically known as the 

 Alpine. These very beautiful flowers possess, as features of 

 distinction from the edged classes and selfs, a perfectly unmealed 

 centre or eye, and petals richly shaded from the deepest to the 

 lightest tints of that one colour which the flower has adopted. 

 That shading cannot, be in tints too numerous or too softly 

 blended. 



The tube of the Alpine so closely follows in colour the centre 

 of the flower that it should have an expression in form all the 

 more marked, because there is the less power of contrast with 

 the centre by colour. It is a great point of beauty in all 

 Auriculas that the mouth of the tube should be well defined, and 

 rise fully to the level of the flower's face, otherwise there is 

 the appearance of a weak and sunken eye. 



The Alpine Auricula is divided into two sections, distinguished 

 by the golden, and the paler, almost primrose-coloured centre. 

 The golden centre is the higher type. In the Alpine, as in the 

 edged flowers, it is again the flowers possessing violet or bluish 

 colours that exhibit the palest yellows in the tube and eye. 

 Flowers would no doubt be very highly valued in this class 

 of violet shades if they could be obtained with the rich golden 

 eye of those with crimson. 



THE POLYANTHUS. 



I must not close this paper without including the florist 

 Polyanthus, a lovely sister of the Auricula, and in sore need of 

 reinforcement in sterling varieties. Some of the very best 

 Polyanthuses, like Kingfisher in the red ground flowers, are lost 

 to cultivation ; and among black grounds of high merit, Lord 

 Lincoln seems all but gone. Many garden strains of Polyanthus 



