larj). ] 
HIBISCUS SYHIACUS CQELESTIS.-“ MANIPULATION ” OF AURICULA BLOOMS. 
113 
HIBISCUS SYKIACLTS CGELESTIS. 
[Plate 
UR gardens contain, perhaps, no hardy 
flowering shrubs—certainly none of the 
deciduous section—which arc more 
strikingly beautiful than the different varieties 
of Altheea-frutex, the Ilihiscus si/riaciis of botan¬ 
ists. They are perfectly hardy, they are very 
floriferous, they run into numerous well-marked 
varieties, and their flowers are in all cases excep¬ 
tionally showy, so that there are few subjects 
that can be more safely reccommended to the 
planter, and that may be more satisfactorily 
introduced to prominent positions in the shrub¬ 
bery borders. We have said that they run into 
numerous varieties, and we find in the cata¬ 
logue of MM. Simon-Louis upwards of thirty 
recorded byname, many of them being double- 
flowered ; while M. Lavallee, in the Arhorelmn 
Segreziamnn remarks that the garden varieties 
are many. 
Beautiful as are the old familiar sorts—that, 
for example, with white flowers, having a deep 
purple-crimson eye—the}^ are eclipsed by the 
charming variety we now figure, and which is 
very faithfully rendered in the accompanying 
plate. We have seen it blooming during the 
past year or two in the nursery of Mr. A. 
Waterer, at Knap Hill, and have always found 
it most strikingly attractive ; the colour, which 
495.] 
sets off the richly-coloured eye to much advan¬ 
tage, being one which is generally admired. 
It is called Celeste, or in the latinised form 
civ/estis. It forms a free-growing plant, in 
habit and foliage resembling the other culti¬ 
vated forms, and is remarkably free in pro¬ 
ducing its flowers. These are large and well- 
expanded, of a beautiful coerulean blue, the 
purple-crimson eye remarkably rich, and radia¬ 
ting outwards towards the mai’gin. Everybody 
who has a place for a choice hardy flowering 
shrub should plant this, and those who do so 
will not be disappointed. 
Another very fine variety which we have 
also noticed at Mr. Waterer’s, is the II. si/riacns 
tofiis albiis, a pure white flower, and perhaps 
the most floriferous of all, the branches being 
thickly studded throughout their whole length, 
by the very distinct looking flowers, which are 
attractive from their unblemished whiteness. 
Young dwarf plants flower copiously, and would 
no doubt form useful subjects for being gently 
forced into bloom in spring for conservatory 
decoration. 
The two varieties here noticed are com¬ 
paratively novel, or at least little known in 
this country, but they both deserve to be 
widely and extensively cultivated.-—T. Moore. 
MANIPULATION'’ OF AURICULA BLOOAIS. 
« 0 the guileless florist, innocent of vile 
deceptions in the exhibition of his 
flowers, it is amusing to have occasional 
proof of the belief being still alive that 
“ painting the lily ” is a fact in his department 
of floriculture. Some one who thought paint- 
in u on velvet might be an art as w’ell with a 
natural as with an artificial tissue, wrote to 
ask me if it were true that my Auriculas were 
painted! Is it worth while to add to a smiling 
denial, the gentle assurance that there would 
not be a remnant of honour, wmrth, and plea¬ 
sure left to a true florist in flowers treated 
so ? But there is nothing dishonest in the 
careful training of a flower of a plant, any 
more than there is in the skilful training of the 
plant itself. 
It is surely expected that what is of high 
merit in floral competitions has received much 
No. 20. imberial series, 
more than common care to bring it to such 
excellency of growth and bloom. We admit 
that even with the same variety of a plant, we 
are not likely to match the gains of the 
thorough cultivator without his pains. His 
skill is based on the sure foundation of at¬ 
tention, knowledge, and love; and there will 
be many thoughtful and ingenious little details 
included in the pains he takes, which would 
not occur to a beginner, nor by an idle man be 
thought worth his trouble. 
In the Auricula, perfect flatness of the pip 
is a very high quality, but unquestionably it 
should never be obtained, as “ T. 0. L.” com¬ 
plains of, at the expense of the integrity and 
beauty of a flower so easily ruined by a care¬ 
less or clumsj’- touch. The less that an ex¬ 
panded Auricula pip needs to be meddled with, 
the better; but if it is to be handled at all, it 
I 
