266 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ December, 
varieties from the Princess Alice strain would not thrive in the softer air of the 
South, I hope I shall be pardoned the seeming egotism of the remark. 
I wish, Mr. Editor, that, following this most satisfactory development of 
varieties and growth, I could say our friends had made equal strides in their 
mode of setting up their flowers in collections, but here truth compels me to say 
there was much lacking, and I could not see without regret such opportunity for 
effective display, save in one or two exceptional cases, either missed or perverted. 
I should have been glad, in the confidence that my motive would not have been 
misunderstood, to have given illustrations of this lack or perversion in the mode 
in which the collections were composed, but seeing an esteemed professional 
friend copying the names of the flowers, I neglected to take any notes, and un¬ 
fortunately, when I received his report, I discovered too late that instead of 
following the old rule of 44 commencing with the back row and reading from left 
to right,” by some strange misdirection he had reported each collection, not in 
the order in which it was shown, but in the order of the classes only. My 
remarks must, therefore, be general; yet I hope, nevertheless, they may not be 
lightly passed over by my brother florists, for the more I have thought upon the 
subject, the more I am confirmed in the opinion that a florist loses half, and the 
best half, of his enjoyment, who does not give thoughtful and intelligent attention 
to the accessories and aids to the development of Ijis pets, and to their presenta¬ 
tion in their very best guise before the eye of an interested public. 
It was the late Lord Lytton, I believe, who defined taste, as 44 a relish 
for things intellectually improved,” and as I looked up and down the long table, I 
could not but feel I was surveying some things open to intellectual improvement. 
Proud of the florist’s art, assured that his pursuit is 44 not unworthy of a wise 
man, nor unbefitting a good one,” and always desirous to uphold in their integrity 
the strictest canons of his law, I could not avoid the conviction that, consciously 
or unconsciously, there was much which did violate such law, and that, too, by 
men who, if called upon to determine the merits of individual flowers, would re¬ 
ject without mercy any in which the colour was found only on one side, or which 
lacked smoothness on the surface or of the edge, or which was palpably poor in 
quality or lustreless in colour. Yet several of the collections exhibited palpably 
faults of this character. Granting exhibitors can only show such flowers as they 
have on the day of exhibition, and if needs must, must show a preponderating 
number of some one or other class, it is an exaggeration of such a misfortune to 
dispose of such a number in a mass, without an attempt even to relieve the in¬ 
congruity by a judicious arrangement of size. Then, again, ill-painted, dirty, and 
dingy boxes, varying in size and colours, are a great dis-sight and serious drawback 
to the perfect success of an exhibition. The dimensions of the boxes, I think, 
should be prescribed explicitly by the executive, and therefore beyond offering to 
give these to any one interested, I need say no more on this part of the subject. 
Put as to the colour, ol* shades of colour, best adapted for the display of flowers, 
and the best mode of getting-up and arranging them for effect, this is a much 
