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THE FLORISTS JOURNAL. 
“ The edging should resemble a bright gold lace, bold, clear, 
and well defined, and so nearly of the same colour as the eye and 
stripes, as scarcely to be distinguished.”— Madd. 
There are many curious, improved varieties of the primrose ; 
such as the different - coloured double ones, which are well 
worth cultivation. Of species, a few have been lately added to 
British collections, particularly a very showy one, Primula 
sinensis , from China, which is at present a great favourite. As 
this is a pretty hardy, free-growing plant, there is no doubt that, 
by high cultivation in highly compounded soils, it may assume all 
the diversity of form and colour so remarkable in its congener of 
European origin. 
LIST OF BEST VARIETIES :— 
Allen’s Favourite. 
Billington’s Beauty. 
Brooke’s Duke of York. 
Brown’s King. 
Darlington’s Defiance. 
Eckerley’s Black and Gold. 
Hardman’s ditto, ditto. 
-- Ranting Widow. 
Park’s Lord Nelson. 
Pearson’s Alexander. 
Smith’s Lady Nelson. 
Stretch’s King. 
Tate’s Prince Regent. 
Thomas’s Nelson. 
Thompson’s Lord Nelson. 
Thorpe’s Golden Fleece. 
Turner’s Prince of Wales. 
-Princess of Wales. 
Yorkshire Prince Regent. 
Main's Florist Directory 
NOTES ON FLOWERS. 
Violet .—This sweet little flower is an universal favourite. The 
odorata and its varieties are most valued ; but they cannot be had 
in perfection unless a good deal of pains is bestowed on them. 
Slugs are very destructive to the violet, devouring the flowers as 
much before as after they are in bloom. Where the flowers are in 
much request, beds are made on purpose for them, composed of a 
layer of coal-ashes on the bottom, covered with a compost of 
peat-earth, loam, rotted cow-dung, and sand ten inches thick. 
On this young runners are planted, six inches apart, in July, 
carefully attended; and, when the cold of autumn sets in, they 
are covered with a frame and lights, and defended from the frost 
