318 
THE FLORIST. 
with that which suffers a deserving and recognised florist’s flower to 
pine in neglect, because of its first-born imperfections, as is the 
hapless lot of the Yellow Picotee. It is the object of my present 
communication to recall florists to a sense of that duty which they 
owe to their own characters and to themselves, as well as to the 
attractive loveliness and rare merits of the flower itself. 
With what delight and surprise did florists first hail the appear¬ 
ance of Mr. Hogg’s Yellow Picotee, Publicola, as figured in the 
Floricultural Cabinet, and what promised pleasure did hope whisper 
of future advancement and improvement in the new varieties that 
were to be showered down upon us! Yet how few have been the 
new sorts, and how far between the improvements! If we examine 
into the cause which has operated in producing such unlooked-for 
results, it may be presumed to be some one of the following: the 
inherent insusceptibility, or incapability, of the Yellow Picotee of 
improvement, or further development; the lack of beauty or attrac¬ 
tion in the flower itself; or, thirdly, the want of spirit and perse¬ 
verance in florists. 
In respect to the first proposition, it would be wholly at variance 
with Nature herself, and contrary also to knowledge and experience, 
to suppose that the “ mean” of development was denied alone to this 
flower; indeed, the attempts at improvement, few though they have 
been, have yet, pro tanto, so far as they have been made, been 
rewarded by accomplishment. 
The second supposed reason of its neglect—^its want of inherent 
beauty and attraction—is alike untenable, and admits not of ques¬ 
tion ; for it has ever been seen that, at exhibitions, not only the 
initiated, but visitors, and all who take an interest in flowers, 
point out the Yellow Picotee as of rarest loveliness. Indeed, in 
eveiy particular, its pre-eminence over the white Picotee is, I con¬ 
ceive, incontestable; for, while the common one presents but one 
colour, that of white, the yellow affords scope for infinite diversity 
of shade, from a light primrose to that of an orange yellow. Let 
the imagination of the florist depict the countless distinctions and 
differences which .are comprised between the two extremes ; and 
let him reflect also on the undefinable and unlimited contrasts 
that would be presented in the combination of the variety of the 
lacing, or edging, which this flower, even already, possesses in its 
red, its pink, its chocolate, its crimson, and its purple, &c. of every 
hue : let him, I repeat, think of this “ till contemplation has her 
filland let him realise his flower, at least in fancy, in all this its 
attainable beauty, though he refuse the attempt to accomplish it, 
and tell us to which the preference rightly belongs—to the multi¬ 
tudinous yellow, or to the simply white-ground Picotee. Nor should 
be overlooked, in the capabilities and diversities of this flower, the 
plain Yellow Picotee; a variety which possesses a beauty and single¬ 
ness of character altogether beautiful and lovely; so that it is even 
esteemed by many connoisseurs as yet the fairest flower, where all 
are fair. 
Much I fear that the third supposed cause of its neglect is the 
