THE CINERARIA. 
461 
rather, it seems as if the point were first cut 
off, and the place notched. The appearance, 
even in its rude state, was gay ; but the 
petals, from their extreme narrowness, seemed 
wide apart, and the larger the flower the 
wider the points were divided. The first 
thing to consider, then, is which is the beauti- 
ful part of the flower, because all properties 
should be formed on an increase of those parts 
which give beauty ; secondly, in what form 
the most beautiful portion would best be in- 
creased for general effect ; thirdly, which is 
the most offensive or uninteresting portion of 
the flower, that, by lessening or altering that, 
it may be improved ; fourthly, in what way 
can such offensive or uninteresting part be 
lessened, or altered, to be the most striking 
and fair. First, then, it must be conceded that 
the beauty of the flower consists in its coloured 
petals, upon which alone the value and in- 
terest of any variety must be founded ; these, 
then, being narrow, and wide apart at the 
ends, suggest without difficulty, for our second 
consideration, that, by increasing the width, 
we should lessen the evil, and by widening 
the petals more at the ends than at the centre, 
whence they spring, the coloured portion of the 
flower would be doubled in quantity, without 
increasing the size of the bloom, and thus pre- 
sent us with a close mass of that portion which 
is beautiful ; and again, by filling up the notch 
which disfigured them all, we bring the outline 
of the flower to a graceful scollop, cr nearly a 
circle, the most beautiful of all forms for a flower 
which faces us, that is, which shows its whole 
surface ; thirdly, in inquiring into the most 
ugly, or uninteresting portion of the flower, 
we have no difficulty in discovering that the 
disk, as it is called, or yellow centre, is, from 
its daisy-like appearance, the worst ; and 
fourthly, the only way of altering this for the 
better, is to keep it within certain proportions, 
if not to lessen it even more. With these con- 
siderations, we have no difficulty in determin- 
ing that the larger, closer, and rounder the 
flower, and the less the eye, the better ; but, 
on examining the generality of the present 
varieties, we observe that, so long as the 
length of the petal is greater than the diameter 
of the eye, the flower looks well; so that, upon 
the whole, the properties of the flower, as 
already laid down in the " Gardener and Prac- 
tical Florist," appear to have been adopted 
with a due regard to what would perfect its 
beauty, as will be seen by the following quo- 
tation from the original work, consisting of a 
few remarks of the author, and his decision as 
to what would be perfection if attained. He 
says, after giving the diagrams, — 
" It will be recollected that this very beauti- 
ful plant has a small starry flower, with nar- 
row petals, projecting outwards, all round a 
yellow disk, such petals being pointed or 
notched. Hitherto, if a new colour, or an 
unusual size, has been attained, it has been 
considered a justification to name the plant, 
and send it out as a new one. All this may 
be very well for a time, but the period has 
arrived, when some regard should be paid to 
the form and habit of a new variety, and the 
properties may be summed up in a few words. 
" The petals should be thick, broad, blunt, 
and smooth at the ends, closely set, and form 
a circle without much indentation. The centre 
or yellow disk should be less than one-third 
of the diameter of the whole flower : in other 
words, the coloured circle formed by the 
petals should be wider all round than the disk 
measures across. The colour should be bril- 
liant, whether shaded or self, or if it be a 
white, it should be very pm*e. 
" The trusses of flower should be large, 
close, and even on the surface, the individual 
flowers standing together with their edges 
touching each other, however numerous they 
may be. The plant should be dwarf. The 
stems strong, and not longer than the width 
across the foliage ; in other words, from the 
upper surface of the truss of flower to the 
leaves where the stem starts from, should not 
be a greater distance than from one side of 
the foliage to the other. In these remarks we 
allude to the plant when in perfection, for, as 
the Cineraria is a constant bloomer, it con- 
tinues to branch and bloom long after its pro- 
per truss has lost its chief beauty, and its 
form ; the blooms are then more distant and 
straggling, but still beautiful, for every little 
branching truss of flowers will preserve the 
character of the principal one, and the plant 
look well to the last." 
"With regard to the culture of this plant, it 
thrives in the composition which suits almost 
everything rich — light, porous soil. Loam, 
peat, and well decomposed dung, in equal pro- 
portions, will grow it well. The seed may be 
sown in shallow pans or pots, in May, kept 
rather moist, and when up they must be 
placed in a frame, or under cover, so that 
they may be easily shaded when they require 
it. As soon as they have four or six leaves, 
they may be placed in pots singly, of the size 
called sixties, (three inches across the top,) 
in the same kind of compost that we have 
mentioned. They may be placed again on 
some hard substance in a frame, because 
syringing and fumigation may be necessary, in 
consequence of those sad pests, the red spider 
and green fly. Many, however, who turn 
out a number of these green-house plants in 
June, put the seedlings on a shelf in it ; 
nevertheless, if they are placed where there 
is plenty of air, and a dry bottom, and well 
attended to, with the watering-pot kept moist 
