DAHLIA SHOWING. 
331 
flower is assuredly in the ascendant again, 
and Dahlia shows will be among the most im- 
portant, we hope we may be permitted to give 
a lesson, on showing, to those who appear to 
want it, and place the properties of the flowers 
in their proper rank. When this flower was 
first made a subject of exhibition, and the 
SortirAilturalJournal laiddown the properties, 
there was more attention paid to the chief 
point than there is at this day. The part to 
which we allude is the centre, the perfection 
of which is indispensable : instead of which, 
we find even the first winning stands contain- 
ing sunk eyes, cross eyes, and what, for want 
of a better word, we must call confused or 
broken eyes. Now the absence of symmetry in 
the centre of a flower is only one degree better 
than a regular open eye or yellow disk ; yet 
vain have been the efforts of writers and 
teachers to impress upon the exhibitor's mind 
the necessity of looking upon this as a fatal 
blemish ; and consider the perfection of the 
centre to be the most important property of 
all. We would almost sooner see a pointed 
petal than a bad eye ; and we wish we could 
impress upon the minds of judges the duty of 
making a severe reduction in the other merits 
of a flower of which the centre shall be found 
deficient. An open or cross eye should be 
all but a disqualification ; and if we could only 
persuade judges to be severe, it should be 
at once thrown out. It has been said, by the 
only authority to which we can look up, in 
a matter of this sort, that a confused eye is as 
bad as an open one, and this is just and true ; 
for an open eye can always be closed if a man 
is allowed to show confused eyes ; for, by 
bruising, and opening, and doubling, and 
twisting the centre petals, it is easy enough to 
make them hide the disk. To pass a confused 
eye, or centre, is only encouraging trickerj' ; 
and the sooner it is made known that a bad 
centre shall be a positive disqualification, just 
as a run petal is to a pink, the better ; and the 
Metropolitan Society must do this. For 
unless it be began there, the example else- 
where would be useless. It is part of their 
own doctrine, and the laxity and carelessness 
have originated in trickery. The society 
which undertook and assumed to be the lead- 
ing authority on Floriculture, during the 
period that the Metropolitan Society was con- 
fined to a mere staff, like a disbanded regi- 
ment, is now no more ; but it did immense 
mischief while it lasted. The management of 
the prizes rendered it necessary to put the 
worst instead of the best first, and to overlook 
many positive disqualifications even in the fore- 
most stands ; and the eye of the younger florists 
became so familiar with imperfect flowers, that 
it is no easy task to bring buck the pure taste to 
its original healthy state. AVe cannot help wish- 
ing that the "Properties of Flowers" were 
published in a collected form, and issued again 
with the authority of the Metropolitan So- 
ciety ; for the committees could then be 
parties to their circulation, by announcing their 
determination to stand by the tests there 
declared to be the true ones, and thus make 
officially a uniformity of taste which should 
be palpable to the visitors at shows ; for, if 
the public knew what a flower ought to be, it 
would be a great check upon the too general 
practice of awarding prizes wrongfully, and 
also, to the careless adjudication of rewards, 
without proper attention to the established 
rules . 
We would impress upon all those who have 
to show, the necessity of conforming to the 
standard in question, and upon judges the 
duty of enforcing it in their decisions ; first, 
by throwing out all confused eyes, all open 
eyes, and all cross eyes, be the flowers in all 
other respects ever so perfect ; all stands with 
a mutilated flower, or a dead flower, or two 
flowers too much alike, whether the same 
variety or not ; then they may judge the 
remainder upon their several merits. For in- 
stance, the round outline, the globular face, 
the symmetrical disposal of the petals, and the 
doubleness. Now, sunk-eyes spoil the glo- 
bular face ; and, therefore, take away that 
essential point from what would be otherwise 
good flowers ; and it first being reduced to a 
comparatively easy task, by throwing out the 
disqualified ones, there will be no difficulty 
in giving the prizes to those which have the 
greatest number of good points, which points 
those who are used to it can see at once with- 
out calculating, but which may be estimated 
by the less experienced by counting only. Say 
they first see how many blooms there are with 
round outlines, next how many there are with 
globular faces, that is, faces the shape of a ball, 
and well up in the centre ; they may next count 
how many are sufficiently double ; then how 
many are symmetrical, that is to say, the petals 
symmetrically disposed; these summed up, will 
give us the relative value of each stand, so far 
as the sterling qualities of a flower go : and 
unless there is something out of the ordinary 
way, a great advance is made towards justice. 
But there may be stands pretty near to each 
other in value up to this point; there are other 
points which may be called in question to 
guide us quite home ; for instance, variety of 
colour, that is, contrast which gives brilliancy, 
and then uniformity, and lastly, size. For it 
is asserted that size should be the very last 
thing to consider ; although, from the very 
circumstance of too much weight being given 
to this least of all good properties, growers 
have been induced to show for size, at the ex- 
pense of some of the best possible points : the 
