ME. T. MOOEE OK JUDGING NEW PLANTS. 



103 



7. Grateful Odour. — This is a great advantage, and must have 

 its full weight in every award. 



8. Distinctness. — If it were not for the development of this 

 characteristic, our flowers would lack half the charms they now 

 have owing to the almost endless variety they present ; and hence 

 this feature of distinctness should be made a sine qua non. A 

 new flower which shows distinctness has at least one prominent 

 merit. 



9. Size of Flowers is an advantage, all other points being equal ; 

 but size is apt to degenerate into coarseness, and hence it is not a 

 feature to be too highly estimated. 



10. Novelty. — A decidedly new character is worth recognition 

 in the absence of any other merit ; for if the plant presenting it 

 does not in other respects give us exactly what we desire, the 

 new feature, if at all a promising one, is to be valued as the first 

 step towards obtaining a new race ; and to produce a new race is 

 equivalent to the addition of a new province to the kingdom of 

 Flora. "When, moreover, it is made an aim to develope, in con- 

 nexion with the novel character, the elements of beauty or utility, 

 in which it may be deficient, this aim will in almost all cases be 

 sooner or later realized, such is the plasticity of vegetable de- 

 velopment. 



To these several features, then, may be assigned the marks in 

 the following ratio, it being understood that 100 marks represent 

 the highest degree of excellence, and that any lesser number will 

 indicate the degree in which good qualities may be possessed 

 below the point of perfection. Practically, therefore, those plants 

 which had gained 75 marks or upwards, would be held to be 1st 

 class in merit ; those which had gained over 50 up to 75 would be 

 2nd class ; and those which had gained only from 30 to 50 would 

 be 3rd class. The full number assigned to each meritorous feature 

 is only to be awarded to the perfect condition of that feature, and 

 any lesser number according to the lower degree of merit shown 

 in that particular feature. The marks or points awarded in the 

 case of the highest merit are — 



Points. 



1. Freeness of habit 



2. Profuseness and display of flowers 



3. Healthiness of leaf-development 



4. Purity, brightness, or contrast of colour . . 



5. Endurance, substance, and form of flowers 



6. Succession of bloom 



15 

 15 

 15 

 10 

 10 

 10 



