198 
THE FLORIST. 
12. Lightbody’s Star of Bethlehem: A robust grower, with a sturdy 
stem carrying nine pips well, and requiring bit and bridle rather than 
spur. The petal is flat but pointed ; the edge pure but not deep green ; 
colour bright violet purple, and zones equally divided; the richest 
looking flower I possess as long as the sun is kept from it, but it bleaches 
at last; grown without stimulants, it will occupy the first rank for 
exhibition. 
13. Litton’s Imperator: A bold starry flower with sharp points to 
the petals; flat, and of good substance and paste ; colour a dark violet; 
edge when green very good; stem too long ; forms a good truss, and is 
good for stage or exhibition, but the plant is small though healthy. 
14. Oliver’s Lovely Ann : Useful rather than ornamental; edge 
light green or grey|; colour chestnut; flat and circular; forms a smooth 
spherical truss, whether with few or many pips. 
15. Ollier’s Lady Ann Wilbraham : Has a pure green edge and a 
pointed petal, with dark chestnut or mahogany ground colour. Its fault 
is want of refinement. 
16. Page’s Champion; One of the few good green edged exhibition 
flowers, though it is never flat. The green of its edge will rank with 
that of Apollo, Freedom, or Lord Lynedoch; the pip is large, and the 
ground colour an attractive violet, but unlike the violets, its tube never 
bleaches. It has good foliage, and lasts long in perfection. 
GREY EDGED. 
17. Beeston’s Fair Flora : Petal pointed, and pip usually too small; 
edge more green than grey; but it is an attractive flower of good 
properties. Ground colour chestnut purple, and 'eye good, and is well 
worth attention.- 
18. Chapman’s Maria: Not a show flower, but of the most singular 
beauty from its colour, though the petal is neither circular nor flat. It 
is of the most intense and pure violet, resembling that of deep coloured 
Elder wine, or the colour of lampblack, and unlike that of any other 
Auricula. 
19. Cheetham’s Lancashire : As a whole this is the most perfect of 
Auriculas, though its edge is rather green than grey; with that excep¬ 
tion it has not a fault. Its petal is almost as rounded as that of Matilda 
or True Briton, and its pip is much more flat than either of theirs. Its 
colour is not so decided a black as that of Freedom, Complete, or its 
most evident parent, Bolivar; and perhaps none the worse for that. 
Robert Lancashire deserves a medal lor raising it. 
20. Dickson’s Matilda : Why this should ever be classed among the 
greens is difficult to say. I have never seen it otherwise than as a 
grey or a white. It is a beautiful thing, but nearly worthless from its 
glaring faults. Its petal and pip are the most perfect of all, but the 
footstalk is too short for a good truss to be possible, and hence it often 
cups, and the pips are of unequal size. When caught at its best it 
resembles an extra good Britannia, but its tube soon bleaches, and not¬ 
withstanding its substance it soon withers. Its constitution is as hardy 
as any, and the edge of the leaf is curiously but minutely serrated like 
that of some Aloes. Its foliage and the whole plant dumpy. 
