JULY. 
197 
petal slightly mouse-eared, but sufficiently flat and circular; violet 
ground colour; pure and vivid green edge of' sufficient breadth, but the 
tube bleaches early. Will bear nine pips, but unless great care is taken 
to prevent increase it is apt to waste its strength on offsets and to flower 
badly, or not at all. 
3. Booth’s Freedom : Where number of pips is not regarded, this is 
the best green edge, the green being the most deep and pure, and the 
contrast between that and the black velvety ground colour being so 
perfect. But 1 have never but once seen seven on the truss, and its 
stem is weak, as is the whole constitution of the plant. It thrives best 
in pure vegetable mould. 
4. Clegg’s Lady Blucher : An attractive flower for a pointed petalled 
one. Colour a light bishop’s purple, shading off towards the paste. 
Edge apple green and very transitory, but a good truss caught on the 
day of show would bid high for a prize. 
5. Dickson’s Duke of Wellington: This, the favourite of the London 
growers, is most attractive as a stage flower certainly, and one of the 
easiest to grow well; but it ought not to be admitted as a show flower 
where properties take the lead, nor is it anything accounted of in 
Lancashire. 'Ihe ground colour, which is a violet purple, and very 
beautiful and velvety, occupies twice its share of the petal; and when 
the edge is green the petal becomes more pointed than when the edge 
is grey or white. The tube bleaches, but not early ; the plant is of 
singularly smooth foliage and of robust constitution, and a rapid breeder; 
it is hardly large enough, moreover. 
6. Dickson’s Prince Albert: Of similar colour to the Duke of Wel¬ 
lington, or rather to Matilda, but more constant as a green edge than 
the former, but it is an apple green, which the other is not. It scarcely 
bleaches and lasts a long time in perfection, but is not a show flower. 
7. Headley’s King James: An exaggerated Duke of Wellington, 
with an edge that may be green, and probably is, but it requires a 
microscope to see it, and the petal is pointed. It has a bad constitution 
and is with difficulty preserved, but it is one of the most striking and 
attractive of stage flowers. 
8. Heath’s Emerald: A good show flower of no great refinement. 
Its petal is pointed, and the green light colour a good common violet. 
Its faults are an extravagant calyx and an eye hardly large enough. 
9. Hudson’s Apollo; A good flower of great refinement, and when 
large enough fit for exhibition. ’ Petals pointed; edge pure but light 
green ; colour chestnut ; paste and substance sufficient. 
10. Leigh’s Colonel Taylor : This most celebrated of all Auriculas, 
which for many years after being let out was catalogued at three 
guineas a plant, is still perhaps the most refined in cultivation, and is a 
tolerably good variety for exhibition. But it has many faults : its petal 
is pointed ; its paste is thin ; its stem is weak; and owing to its sickly 
constitution it is inconstant. A plant in health will carry nine pips. 
Its colour is a beautiful purplish claret, the edge as green as grass, the 
substance leathery, and the pip flat; nor does the tube bleach. 
11. Lightbody’s Sir John Moore : A robust goggle-eyed flower of a 
pretty light purple ground colour, mixed edge, and crumpled petal; 
very fit for the border. 
