FLORICULTURE OP THE PAST YEAR. 
37 
that the new ones come to any fine standard, 
the progress is slow ; and this sluggishness 
arises, for the most part, from the indifferent 
judgment and worse taste of those who will 
write about them. It will hardly be believed, 
that, in a work of some pretence, but for- 
tunately of no circulation, we have lists of 
flowers recommended that no honest florist 
could conscientiously pass off to the most 
uninformed Tyro; but if, unfortunately, the list 
should fall into the hands of an ignorant begin- 
ner, and he should procure those recommended, 
he would become disgusted with the flowers 
altogether, and come to the well-founded con- 
clusion, that if they were good, the tulip was 
unworthy of his notice. The best varieties 
that have turned up lately are, the Queen of 
the North, a byblomen, that has been out 
two seasons, and begins to be understood ; it 
is deeper than we like, something of the 
shape of Ceres belleforme, but beautifully 
pure in the white and distinctly marked in 
the purple : Dickson's Bijou, a rose that has 
been out about the same time, is also very 
distinct and a good shape, and proves all that 
we said of it; and a rose which has been conspi- 
cuous this season — -Rose Magnificent — is not 
less remarkable for its brilliance of colour, 
than for the dulness of the pretended repre- 
sentation of it; and it is only justice to this 
striking rose to say, that had we not seen the 
name attached to the portrait of the flower, it 
is impossible that we should have guessed that 
it was meant for the Rose Magnificent. This 
flower is in several persons' hands ; Alexander 
has the breeders ; Macefield has some of the 
flowers, as, indeed, have several of the grow- 
ers at Hoxton ; but, in all its states, it is 
among the best of the roses. In the country 
there is great talk of new things, but their 
very best has so frequently disappointed us, 
that we wait to see them before we can say 
much in their favour. The proportions of the 
tulip are at last definitively settled as we set- 
tled them in 1832, the proportion of shape to 
be from a third to half of a hollow ball ; and 
we have given these proportions to show that 
less than the third would be too shallow, while 
more than the half would be too deep, but that 
all the shades between would be perfection. 
We have been congratulated by some of the 
oldest and most respectable growers for thus 
settling the question. It was endeavoured to 
be shown by diagrams and specious arguments 
that the third was wrong, and most disinge- 
nuously the same circle was used for the third 
as was used for the half, by which the third 
was made to look smaller than the half, 
whereas we have shown that the same flower 
which forms a fine half, may be expanded 
wider until it forms a third, and every grade 
of the expansion is equally beautiful, for what 
it loses in depth it gains in size, and down 
to one third it is all that we can desire. 
Nay, a flower that will not expand to the 
third without quartering (or dividing between 
the leaves,) is comparatively worthless ; and 
we have now the acknowledged authority of 
every grower in the kingdom whose opinion is 
worth recording, that the question is settled. 
Such being the case, we leave all those who 
claim to have had anything to do from first to 
last with settling the form at any portion of a 
circle, no matter what, to prove where and when 
they first wrote it, or be satisfied that they are 
set down as pretenders. We are not going to 
raise the question again under any circum- 
stances. We wrote the properties of flowers 
before we even communicated with a single 
individual, and we never, directly or indirectly, 
had a hint from any body. This is all we shall 
now say about the authorship of the properties 
of flowers, so falsely claimed by persons who 
had no other means of knowing. The ex- 
traordinary notions which it was at first con- 
sidered we had formed, and which in the 
Pansy, the Geranium, the Verbena, the Cine- 
raria, the Tulip, the Petunia, the Rose, and 
indeed many others, were disputed until we 
succeeded in convincing the best florists that 
they were correct, were then claimed by writers 
who had either never put pen to paper on 
the subject, or had written to the contrary. 
The Cineraria has arrived at a close approxi- 
mation to the model. Ivery's Beauty of 
Peckham has its petals so close as to form a 
circle, the very thing which a few years ago 
was called impossible; and there are some 
others coming pretty close up. This flower is 
distinctly advancing; some of the best of three 
years ago will now have to give place to better, 
and the colours are as novel and distinct as 
their forms are beautiful. The Petunia, though 
improving, is not a general favourite. It is a 
difficult thing to exhibit ; a single flower is 
hardly enoughto show, anda plant is too weedy, 
nor are there enough distinct varieties to 
make a stand of single flowers attractive ; but 
after all, it should be remembered that its 
value arises from its habit as much as its 
flowers ; dwarfnessis a great point, abundance 
of bloom, thickness of corolla, roundness of 
flower, brightness of colour. Too many are 
the reverse of all this: they are straggling, 
weedy, untidy looking things, and only tole- 
rable while small. They have greatly im- 
proved in the form and texture of their flowers, 
and if some attention be paid now to the 
most dwarf varieties they will be greatly in- 
creased in value. The late Mr. Girling did 
more than any body else in his time towards 
improving this flower, and there are some 
novelties in the Danecroft Nursery at the 
present time not yet distributed to the public. 
