sible for the hybridizer to effect this artificially, where the 
organs are either so small or so awkwardly situated as to make 
the operation one of great difficulty, and consequently then it 
is absolutely necessary, where it is hoped to obtain valuable 
varieties, to grow only such sorts as are of real merit; for 
it too often happens, that as “ ill weeds grow apace,” so the 
pollen of worthless flowers has often apparently a vitality 
denied to more highly refined ones. In the case of Auriculas, 
we know that growers will positively refuse to grow a single 
alpine, when they are desirous of saving seed, as, if they do 
so, they find that a very large proportion of the plants produced 
are of an alpine character. The colour of this new and 
striking variety is a dark-chocolate, or black, broadly margined 
with pure white, the colour not being laid on in a broad band, 
but passing off into minute hair-like strokes; and we hardly 
think that the raisers have exaggerated its merits when they 
describe it as probably one of the most desirable of the many 
new variations of this universally-grown annual. 
