214 
THE FLORIST. 
seedlings, and to award to them, if deserving, first-class certificates of 
merit; and this, let me tell them, is no easy matter. However well, 
Pansy Censors, you may please in placing the stands, here you must 
displease. Every raiser thinks too highly of his own productions, 
and if he gets no first-class certificate, he thinks it a great hardship. 
But never mind, Pansy Censors, you have a duty to perform to the 
public. 
Let me suggest some instructions to be given to you by the 
Committee upon this point also. 
The Censors, then, will examine carefully whether each competing 
seedling is in character. If the lacing in laced flowers breaks off in 
the side petals, and does not finish home above the eye; or if it be 
spotty, and not sufficiently dense, you may be sure it is either out of 
character or unworthy. If out of character, how can you judge of its 
real merits ? if unworthy, of course you cannot help it up the ladder 
of fame by adjudging it a first-class certificate. Next look to the 
edges. If they are not smooth, no first-class certificate must it 
have. Next observe its substance, —a main point. The way in which 
the flower holds itself will generally shew its substance. If it hugs 
the face of the stand all round with its outer edge, the under petals 
lying flat, and close home upon the others, and it looks dense and 
bright, it may hope for something at your hands, if good in other 
points ; but if it turns up any of its edges towards you, especially in 
the lower petal, condemn it. 
Next look to the eyes; I say eyes, for you must look to the side 
as well as the bottom petal for this striking feature of the Pansy. 
Are the eyes, then, dense and distinct, and, above all things, quite clear 
of the lacing ? If so, well; if not, blackball it. Next look to the 
brightness of the ground-colour, and take heed you have not two 
ground-colours. The different shade of the lacing will sometimes 
detect this, when the bloom, from its apparently equal ground-colour, 
will not. Look out, for you may be taking in many by giving such 
a flower a first-class certificate. 
Next look to the shape. It must be nearly round for the present 
day. 
And now a word about Selfs, dark Selfs. The great point to be 
observed here is the eye. A very common fault is, to find the eye in 
the bottom petal striking boldly and distinctly into the self-colour: 
so far well; but what of the side eyes ? w T hy, they are surrounded by 
a small portion of white ground-colour, and then comes the self¬ 
colour. Now, upon what pretence can such a flower as this claim a 
first-class certificate ? It is not a Self, else would it have no ground¬ 
colour at all. It is not a flower with two colours worth having, for 
the eye runs into the bottom petal. It must be condemned. Such 
is Grand Sultan; such was a flower I refused a certificate to at the 
Surrey, and was told by the raiser that no grower had ever been so 
hardly used at a public show before. I say, never were the public 
better used by Censors doing their duty. 
One of the conditions for the shewing of seedlings, on the occa¬ 
sion I speak of, was, that the blooms of each variety should be three 
