148 V THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
r JULT, 
It may enable us possibly to solve this difficulty, if we refer to wliat consti¬ 
tutes excellence in the flower^ and apply similar rules of excellence to the flowers 
in collections. In the individual flower, we require “ high quality, symmetrical 
form, and brilliant and distinct markings, harmoniously arranged.” Precisely the 
same requirement applies to flowers in collections. As the florist would reject or 
place low down in his estimation a flower in which the colour largely prepon¬ 
derated on one side, so it is equally an offence to the educated eye to find the 
colour ill-balanced in a collection ; again, as symmetry of form is required in the 
flower, so it must equally be found in a collection; therefore the florist will 
carefully avoid extremes of size, either very large or very small, and if 
compelled to resort to their use, will so place them, the large as far from the 
line of sight as may be, the small as immediately beneath it, that the dispro¬ 
portion shall be reduced to the least noticeable limits, in accordance with the law 
that as objects are removed from or are near to the line of sight, they diminish 
or increase in appearance.^' 
On the subject of judging collections, a very general error is to assume that 
their merit is to be determined by a comparison of flower with flower, comparing 
No. 1 with No. 1, and so on up to No. 12 respectively, and assigning a first or 
secondary place, as the number of blooms may be found better or worse. This 
has led to many mistakes, and no little heart-burnings. Let me illustrate this 
by an example. Suppose that two stands, A and B, each consisting of six 
flowers, are to be judged, and that each figure underneath denotes a flower and 
its degree of merit. If they chanced to be placed in the first position, they will 
be equal:— 
A. —3.2.4 3.4.5. 
B. —o .2 .4 .'.3.4 .’.5. 
But take the same flowers, and change their position thus :— 
A.—3. 2.4.3.4.5. 
/?.—4.3.5.4 3.2. 
It will be seen that B gains on 4 flowers, and A only on 2, consequently the 
award is given to B. But similarly change their position again, and A gains on 
4, B on 2, therefore the award goes to A. 
This is radically wrong in principle, and therefore must lead to error in prac¬ 
tice. The sound rule is to compare each collection, as a wliole^ with its com¬ 
peting collection, and to determine its place by the result. Of course, into this 
comparison analysis would enter, as it enters into the determination of the merit 
and place of the individual flower, which wins its place, when rightly judged, as 
it is found to contain the higher quality, the better growth, the more symmetrical 
form, the brighter colours, the better markings, and the greater variety. 
Practice will, of course, be needed to give quick discrimination, and this the 
cultivator will nowhere better obtain than in the constant review and comparison 
In* further remarks on this point, I must beg the interested reader to turn to the December number 
of last year’s volume, page 268 , and read from the top to the twentieth line. 
