May 20, 1898. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
597 
painful, but to the truly trained eye an added beauty, 
because in very deed it is added variety.” And now 
came another lesson in (again tft repeat Hogg) the 
" laying ” of the petals. In the flakes, bizarres, and 
Picotees, a point in size had been gained by reversing 
the upper points of the calyx, and dropping or 
drawing out the lower tier of petals to the extent 
thus attained. But now, with the majority, no such 
additional size was needed, and the work to be 
performed was to restore the symmetry of form 
where, from excess of impulse to bloom, the petals 
had burst irregularly into flower. This was effected, 
not by splitting down the calyx in its every division 
to the sub-calyx, “ a practice,” said Mr. D., 11 1 think 
most reprehensible,” but by skilfully returning the 
dropped petal to the support of the calyx, and 
building up the petals tier by tier to the centre. 
That effected, again the composition of the stand was 
studied and completed as before. 
Then came the yellow grounds—the Kilmurrys, 
and six of any raisers. But here the work was more 
mechanical, six blooms offering relatively little scope 
for arrangement. 
Meantime friends, with their precious’ cargo of 
flowers, had come in, and settled down to the work 
r of preparation. Foremost in time, and, as the next 
day’s work showed, amongst the very first in place, 
came Mr. Rowan and his son, a florist destined, 
A.— Flamed Tulip. 
unless I greatly fail to interpret accomplished fact, 
to attain very high rank amongst his fellows. And 
it was pleasant indeed, when the laying of the 
flowers had been completed, to watch the action of 
the old and experienced, and the eager intuition of 
the younger man, as together Mr. D. and Mr. R., 
jun., arranged and re-arranged until the best effect 
was seen to be attained. “ First stand,” said Mr. D., 
as the box was completed and closed, ‘‘with Read 
for a close second,” and sure enough it came, for a 
finer twelve I have never looked upon.— IV. M. 
Hewitt , in Report «/ the Carnation and Picotee Union 
-- 
THE FLORIST’S TULIP. 
In order to elucidate our remarks more clearly in 
answer to the queries of a correspondent concerning 
the technicalities of the Florist’s Tulip we give the 
accompanying illustrations. Independent of the 
original or *' breeder ” stage of the flower there are 
three classes into which the “ broken ” or ‘‘ rectified” 
varieties may be classed. All of them depend upon 
the colour of the flower in the breeder stage inde¬ 
pendent of the markings which they ultimately 
assume in the "rectified” stage. The base, or 
bottom, of the flower of a Bizarre in the “ breeder ” 
stage is yellow, while the remaining and greater part 
of the segments is of some dusky brown or other 
shade of colour. When this becomes "rectified” 
after flowering for two or more years, it becomes 
what is termed flamed, if there is a central band of 
colour along the middle of the segment with dark 
maroon or crimson lines alternating with yellow ones 
along the edges. The flowers illustrated A and 
B would represent this stage. That in the 
B. —Flamed Tulip, Nimbus. 
first column shows a large proportion of 
clear space without lines, and which is merely a 
development of the ground colour as seen in the 
yellow bottom of the breeder stage. The lines at the 
margin are termed the feather, but a perfectly or 
correctly flamed flower always has a feather, so that 
it is unnecessary to describe a flower as flamed and 
feathered, the word flamed being sufficient to describe 
it. Where the markings are confided solely to the 
margin the flower is said to be feathered, and if the 
ground colour including all the central portion is 
yellow, then the flower would be described as a 
feathered Bizarre. The illustration C is a heavy 
flamed flower while D is a light flamed flower. 
The descriptions apply in the same way to the 
other two classes with exception of the colours. If 
the bottom of the “ breeder ” stage is white and the 
rest of the flower rose or some shade of red, it belongs 
to the Rose class. This in the flamed stage is rose 
along the centre, or some other shade of red, while 
the feather may be crimson or some other dark 
C.—Heavy Feathered Tulip. 
colour. The ground colour between the markings is 
white, and this is most largely developed in the 
feathered stage occupying all the centre of each seg¬ 
ment of the flower as in the illustrations C and D. 
The Bybloemens agree with the Roses in having a 
white bottom in all stages. The upper portion of 
each segment in the breeder stage is some shade of 
purple, violet or black. In the flamed stage the par¬ 
ticular colour is continued in the central flame of 
the flower and shows itself also in the marginal 
feather. The feathered stage has the colours con¬ 
fined to the margin as usual and all the central por¬ 
tion, or ground colour, is white as in the Roses. Al¬ 
together, then, the “rectified” flowers may be 
classed as flamed or feathered Bizarres, flamed or 
feathered Roses, and flamed and feathered Byblce- 
mens. No one can tell from the breeder stage 
whether the flower will become flamed or feathered 
in the rectified stage, but any one can determine to 
which of the three classes it belongs, unless the 
flower is of a mixed character and not worth attain¬ 
ing. There may be flamed and also feathered strains 
of the same variety. 
--5-- 
INVERNESS-SHIRE. 
The Weather and the Crops. 
Judging from the large amount of blossom on trees 
generally, the hardy fruit crop promises this season 
to be above the average on the west coast of 
Scotland, and considering the perverse nature of 
last year, one is almost led to believe that wood 
ripening has not got such a great deal to do with 
future crops as is generally supposed. Be that as it 
may, with the exception of Plums, all other sorts 
seem this spring to have taken a new lease of life, 
doubtless the exceptionally fine weather experienced 
since the i8th of March having had a most beneficial 
effect in plumping up flower buds generally. 
There was no rain here to speak of from the 
middle of March to the nth and 12th inst., when 
nearly half an inch fell each day. So that the 
ground is now in a fairly moist condition. The 
bright sunshine and consequent heat, especially on 
the 22nd of April, was almost phenomenal, being 
within one degree of the hottest day last summer. 
This wave of heat, the cause of which is not 
immediately obvious, seems to have been pretty 
general all over these Islands, but owing to the heavy 
dews at night, and very slight showers at intervals, 
we have not suffered from the drought here to any 
appreciable extent. 
Our fruit trees are all on walls with a few 
exceptions, and the wealth of blossom on a great 
many of the Apples and Cherries was really fine, not 
to say pretty. Plums this year are to be below the 
average; doubtless owing to the sunless weather 
in the autumn of last year, the wood did not get 
thoroughly consolidated. There was plenty of 
bloom but the individual flowers had not the size 
and substance which generally obtains. Amongst 
those which have set fair crops I may mention 
Victoria, good, Green and Transparent Gages, 
