32 
GLENNY ON THE ANEMONE. 
first horizontally extended, and then turning 
a little upwards, so as to form a broad shallow 
cup, the interior part of which should contain 
a great number of long small petals imbricating 
each other, and rather reverting from the cen- 
tre of the blossom. There are a great num- 
ber of small slender stamens intermixed with 
these petals, but they are short and not easily 
discernible. The colour should be clear and 
distinct, when diversified in the same flower, 
or brilliant and striking if it consists of only 
one colour, as blue, crimson, or scarlet, &c, 
in which case the bottom of the broad exterior 
petals is generally white ; but the beauty and 
contrast is considerably increased when both 
the exterior and interior petals are regularly 
marked with alternate blue and white, &c, or 
stripes, which in the broad petals should not 
extend quite to the margin." Such are the 
properties of the Anemone laid down by our 
predecessors, and accompanied with an illus- 
trated wood-cut, in which the outer " well 
rounded petals" are drawn almost round, and 
forming much such a shaped flower as if six 
shillings were placed round half-a-crown. 
We may be told some day, as Mr. Wood has 
told the public with regard to carnations, 
that the properties (of the Anemone) have 
been published years before we wrote ; and so 
they have been, but we hesitate not to say 
that the properties as laid down above have 
been the cause of the flower not having made 
one step in advance. The " well rounded 
petals" as they are called, are the worst that 
could be imagined as to the appearance of the 
flower, and unless the properties laid down 
are such as would enhance the beauty, they 
had better been left alone. Now there can be 
no good reason for the stem being nine 
inches long, unless it were for the conveni- 
ence of large nosegay makers, in which case 
the Anemone must be set down as a flower 
very fit for bunching, and of no sort of im- 
portance as a florist's flower. Now it does so 
happen, that the more dwarf an Anemone is 
the better it is in appearance ; six inches for 
a flower stem would look infinitely better than 
nine, but for real beauty the more nearly the 
flower is down upon the foliage, the better the 
bed must look, and the richer the contrast. 
Then, so far from their being well rounded 
petals, there could not be a worse fault. The 
flower itself should be circular, and not even 
show any indentation where they lap over each 
other, whereas your well rounded petals would 
show the division half way into the centre, and 
there is no getting out of this, because there 
is the specimen of the perfection before us 
with the actual division between the petals 
indented more than half ; otherwise it might 
have been said, and would have been said, that 
well rounded petals meant that the flower was 
to be well rounded. And this point, the out- 
line of a flower, is by far the most important. 
Then, all the other essential points are lost sight 
of so completely that it would be quite pos- 
sible for a flower to be in every respect up to 
the silly standard laid down here, and yet not 
be worth growing at all. Now the petals 
ought to be thick and lie flat, the colour 
ougbt to be dense without regard to bright- 
ness, for colour is a matter of taste alone, and 
a Waterloo blue would be as valuable as a 
bright one, a sky-blue as much so as either. 
Then with regard to the florets that compose 
the. centre or cone of which the double only are 
possessed, they should be as large as possible, 
the larger the better, and they should form a 
half ball, laid on a flat round disk. If we 
descend to colour at all, it would be desirable to 
have the centre a totally different colour to 
the broad petals, and thus present a contrast ; 
then again, if there be stripes, or blotches, or 
marks, they should be well defined, but it 
will strike any one upon reflection, that a 
flower might be right up to the criterion of a 
good double Anemone, and yet show the six 
deep divisions of the petals, which alone ren- 
der it worthless, and have thin flimsy petals 
which form another fatal blemish ; it may 
have a flat poor centre, which is a "third fault. 
Now any one of these three faults would make 
a flower good for nothing, and yet might be 
prevailing to any extent in a specimen in 
every way answering the description laid 
down as the criterion of a fine double Ane- 
mone. We presume, that as we lay down 
very distinctly the properties required for a 
perfect anemone, and do not anticipate any 
speedy approach to it ; those who are so fond 
of pretending that every thing was known 
beforehand, will carefully peruse Mr. Loudon's 
criterion, and then tell us how much it con- 
tains that they find in the properties of 
flowers as laid down by us. The truth is, 
that not one flower was properly defined; not 
a solitary instance of a criterion founded upon 
a sound principle can be urged with regard 
to florists' flowers and plants, and on this 
occasion we have produced the best criterion 
there was to show how utterly useless and 
worthless it was. People may talk as they 
like about what cannot be reached, but we 
have reversed the order of things, and pur- 
posely set up a test which is unapproachable, 
and had in view only what would make things 
perfect. 
In choosing Anemones new for a collection 
we have already recommended the course to 
pursue with regard to the single and some 
double varieties, but with regard to what are 
called double, which we nevertheless think an 
improper name, there are some favourites 
which may be commenced with, but they are 
