THE PEEPAEA.TION OF THE PANSY FOE EXHIBITION. Kp 
r 
THE PREPARATION OF THE PANSY FOR EXHIBITION. 
By Mr. G. GLENISTT, F.H.S. 
?F the judges at floral shows did theii- duty, and thi-ew out of competition all those flowers wHch 
liad distinct and disqualifying blemishes, there would need little instruction for showing the 
Pansy ; but either from bad taste, or want of taste, in the judges often appointed, there is no guide for 
exhibitors, and every decision tends to thi'ow those cultivators who attend to rules, completely off 
their guard. It is the most extraordinary circumstance that men who subscribe to the properties 
which constitute a good Pansy, nevertheless, by their actions contradict them. We have watched the 
stands all through a season, and in no one instance have been able to count twelve flowers out of 
thii-ty-six that were set up according to the standard — not that we expect any to be equal to it, but 
we mean that in the case of two-thirds of the flowers, essential points have been sacrificed to the 
coarse taste or want of taste that places size first in estimation. We all know that there is a great 
abundance of coarse large flowers in which the best points are deficient, or in which there is some 
unquestionable blemish ; of these we would speak, that exhibitors possessing taste and judgment 
may avoid them, and if the judges will not appreciate correctness, tJwt/ must be condemned 
instead of the showers. 
In the first place nothing detracts so much fi-om the brilliance of the Pansy as a small field or 
ground-colom-, and a large eye; yet judges will persist in giving prizes to such flowers in the very 
teeth of the fact that they are already too numerous, and always lower a stand. The law upon this 
subject is not an arbitrary one ; and it is the very essence of the "properties of flowers" that the 
standards, although to a certain point staingent, are in no case calculated to limit varieties. A large 
field of white or yellow, or a small field, is a matter of variety with which the properties do not 
interfei'e ; but if the rays of the eye touch the marginal colour it is fatal ; the standard, therefore, 
makes no condition that the field shall be small or large, but it forbids the ill proportion of eye and 
field that makes one fill the other and touch the margin. Why, then, should any exhibitor fly in 
the face of this detraction, and put a third of his flowers, or any of the flowers in his stand with 
this decided blemish ? Or, rather, why do not the judges at once discard them, and teach exhibitors 
that if they will not obey the rules they will have no prize ? It needs only that an exhibitor should 
put half a dozen flowers, with good large fields of white and yellow together, and half a dozen of 
those indefinite things which have scarcely any ground colour, or field at all, and compare them ; 
he will soon see that one is dull and monotonous, the other bright and cheerful. There is no one 
point to which exhibitors ought to pay more attention, if they wish for good eflect in their stands ; 
but flowers having these good qualities, will not, in all cases, be so large as the undefined coarse kinds 
which prevail among the exhibitors. 
There is another point to which the attention of exhibitors should be directed. They should 
avoid all those which have serrated edges, and deep indentations in the imder petal ; these are faults 
which often go together, and ought to be fatal to a stand ; but the same coai'se notions, which over- 
look the eye touching the margin, and yield to size, will overlook notched edges, deep indentations, 
and sundry other blemishes, to encourage what they call fail' growth. The cultivators for exhibition 
may tell us that there is no encouragement to show according to properties, but this has to be tried. 
Judges observing that all are careless alike, give to the finest growth ; but they hardly dare, indeed 
they would hardly be disposed, to overlook smooth edges and brilHance in a collection of moderate 
sized flowers, to give the award to dulness and coarseness in a larger growth. There is only one 
way in which the judges could induce attention, and that is by excluding for once every stand that 
had flowers with these decided faults. The case is thus, we have seen it over and over again : — A 
number of stands are put up, which, if the judges were strict, ought to be all rejected ; but the 
judges have not the moral courage to administer so sweeping a lesson ; they fear ofi'ending all, and 
therefore, first of all deciding that all are disqualified alike, they lose sight of all blemishes, because 
some of the stands are fi-ee from them, and merely award the prizes to the finest growth. Let us 
advise amatem- growers — for the nm'sei-ymen may do as they please — to put in theii' stands 
No flower that has a serious indentation. 
No flower of which a single ray from the eye touches the margin. 
No flower with a notched or seiTated edge, that is to say, none that are conspicuously so, for there 
are not many entii'ely free. 
03 No flower that has not a distinct field of white or yellow, or is a self. 
^ No self that has any cloudy or different colom- as it approaches the centre. Nothing so mars a 
m| stand as a cloudy centi-e. 
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