PRIMULA CONFERENCE. 



proportion, because if the centre, or the body colour, or the edge, 

 are in the smallest degree out of proportion, then the beauty of 

 the flower to the florist's eye in our view is gone. Proportion 

 seems to me to be almost the very first characteristic, and next 

 to get what we call a good colour, an absolutely white paste, 

 a sound body colour and clear edge, with no undecided margin. 

 I think such a man as Mr. Douglas should be able to give .us 

 his views, because he succeeded in producing the best flowers of 

 the show. I think he showed the champion flower among the 

 florists' Auriculas, and I think he might give us some idea of 

 what he is working upon in producing the best forms of florists' 

 Auriculas. There is one particular variety, George Lightbody, 

 which seems to have been the parent of almost all our best 

 recent endeavours in that way. I cannot speak from experience 

 in that way. I have raised one or two flowers that have gained 

 certificates, but Mr. Douglas has raised some scores. 



Mr. Burbidge : There is one little point I should like to 

 allude to in connection with hybridizing generally, that is, 

 that I do not think we should look entirely to the flower 

 itself for the colour. If you get the desired colour in any 

 other part of the plant — even in the root — it is possible 

 that you may get that colour in the flower by seeding and 

 by crossing — by crossing especially. Take for example the 

 common Primrose. If you look at the foot-stalks of the 

 leaves you will notice a delicate pink colour in them. It is 

 indicated in Dr. Masters' large diagram on the wall, and 

 it is really in nature brighter than it is represented there. 

 That colour we might expect to get in the flower as well as 

 at the base of the leaves. 



In the room below there is a very interesting collection of 

 wild Primroses from Cornwall. Those Primroses have varied 

 from a yellow colour just as one might expect them to vary from 

 the amount of pink in the root of the plant. 



I do not think we get new colours so often as we imagine 

 in hybridizing, but I think we have got the power of developing 

 the colour found in one part of the plant and causing it to appear 

 in another situation. 



Mr. Bolton : I should like to say that we rarely get two seed- 

 lings of a similar colour. In reference to colour we look out for 

 what we call in Lancashire deep, solid colours. We throw out 



