JUNE. 
175 
hnique, Maclean's and Dickson's. —These are not new flowers, but 
both are much rarer than they should be; and though here placed 
together have little in common except their beauty, which is such that, 
in a collection of six out of upwards of 130 sorts, I shewed them both. 
Maclean’s is a lively energetic masculine flower, Dickson’s all feminine 
soilness andr grace; indeed, the delicate grey velvet of its edge is 
unequalled, and it makes an even and particularly handsome truss. 
And now, instead of entering upon Headly’s George Lightbody, 
before I know much about it, I will conclude with some practical general 
observations on the third section, or white edges. The late Mr. Beck 
used to say that Taylor’s Glory was the only good one, which is so far 
true that for one good white edge it is easy to find four in any other 
section. One of the best I have ever seen was the grey-edged Light- 
body's Sir Charles Napier, which, in all my plants this year, is a pure 
and distinct and excellent white; and I should have shown it this day 
as such, though with only six (but those were perfect) pips, but that I 
was overruled. Owing to the show being too early for me by a week, 
I was obliged reluctantly to forego Heap’s Smiling Beauty, and to put 
up with Lightbody’s Fair Maid; the maid instead of the mistress, 
which is about their relative value. Why do not the three C’s— 
Messrs. Campbell, Cunninghame, and Cummings, or other enterprising 
raisers—turn their attention to whites and seed expressly for them ? 
The great fault of this very pretty section of Auriculas is that so few 
have a well-defined body colour; the colour runs into the edge, and 
the edge meals over the colour, and there is no sharp contrast between 
them. By far the best of all in every requisite is Heap’s Smiling 
Beauty; next may come Taylor’s Glory; 3rd, Ashworth’s Regular; 
4th, Taylor’s Favourite; 5th, Taylor’s Incomparable. What is to be 
called the sixth ? I am at a loss to tell. Earl Grosvenor or Countess 
of Wilton may 'possibly, if they can be got to flower in time; but I 
am doubtful. Of Smith’s Ann Smith and Lady Sale 1 can say nothing, 
as I have not seen them on the plants, and Trail’s White Rival is not 
yet open with me; but all the rest are not worth numbering in order 
of merit, and few of tliem ought ever to be shown. And even of those 
numbered above. Favorite has too long a stem, and is apt to hold down 
its head ; Incomparable is usually streaky; and Glory itself is uncertain, 
liable to curl, and difficult to be caught on the day. True Briton, fine 
as it is, is undecided, and the petal curls; Catherina is occasionally 
not much amiss, though always indistinct; Pott’s Regulator is an 
ornament to the box, but its edge is undecided, and its eye too large 
and bleaches; Robert Burns is uncertain, often having a mere streak 
of colour, and always too large an eye; Smith’s Ne Plus Ultra is 
pointed, angular in the rings, and the edge not mealed enough; Fair 
Maid has an impure, mealed, dull colour; Popple well’s Conqueror is 
all eye and colour, and that not distinct; Pillar of Beauty has its 
colour coarsely daubed on, and the eye bleaches; Clegg’s Crucifix is 
like the preceding, coarse and indistinct; Gairn’s Model is much too 
small, and even what there is of it is not distinct enough to form a 
contrast; Countess of Dunmore is very poor, edge impure, colour 
smeary, and eye too large; Mrs. Willoughby is a lady in mourning, 
