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Whether it be very deeply feathered at the edge, like the pattern on the edge of a heavy feathered tulip, or an even stripe not wider than the thickness of the petal, all round the edge, or something between, it is only necessary that it be uniform; that none of the feathery marks have a break, and that there shall be as much width of white as colour seen on the petal at the deepest part of the feather. It is not necessary that the feather be the same width all the way round, but every stripe which does not reach the edge of the petal is a blemish.

DISQUALIFICATIONS OF BLOOM.

1. If there be any petal dead or mutilated. 2. If there be any one petal in which there is no colour.

3. If there be any one petal in which there is no white.

4.

If a pod be split down to the sub-calyx. If a guard petal be badly split.

5. Notched edges are glaring faults, for which no excellence in other respects compensates.

PROPERTIES OF THE HOLLYHOCK.

With regard to the properties of the Hollyhock the following will be enough for the present; we may be more explicit hereafter.

1. The flower should be round, and the principal or guard petals should be thick, entire on

the edges, and lie flat, being free from puckering or frilling.

2. The centre, which is composed of florets, should form half a ball, and the more it covers the principal or guard petals the better.

3. These florets should be thick, large, whole on the edges, perfectly free from fringe, or notch, or raggedness all over.

4. The colour should be dense, instead of watery, and transparent or washy as that of the Hollyhock is generally. The more bright and novel the more desirable.

5. The spike should be close, the flowers touching each other, and tapering from the bottom to the top; the footstalks of the flower being longer at the lower end of the spike than at the upper end.

6. There is no fixed height for the plant; but the flowers should begin one foot from the ground, and open all at once.

THE PROPERTIES OF THE CALCEOLARIA.

1. The plant should be shrubby; the habit bushy; the wood strong; the foliage thick and dark green.

2. The flower-stem should be short and strong; and the footstalks of the blooms elastic, and branching well away from each other, to form a rich mass of flowers, without crowding.

3. The individual flower depends entirely on the form of the purse; it should be a perfect

round hollow ball; the orifice and calyx cannot be too small, nor the flower too large.

4. The colour should be very dense; whether the marking be a spot in the middle, or stripes, or blotches, it should be well defined the ground should be all one colour, whether white, straw, sulphur, yellow, or any other colour.

5. The colour of a self should be brilliant, and all over of the same actual shade; dark flowers with pale edges, or clouded and indefinite colours, are bad and unfit for show.

6. The bloom should form one handsome group of pendent flowers, commencing where the foliage leaves off; the flower-stems should not be seen between the foliage and the flowers, which latter should hang gracefully, and be close to each other; the branches of the flower-stems holding them so as to form a handsome surface.

THE PROPERTIES OF THE ANEMONE.

We shall, notwithstanding all the gaudy varieties which are cultivated in our gardens, treat the Anemone as one quite worthy of being elevated to the distinction of a florist's flower. The single ones are beautiful in a border or a clump; they bloom early in the spring, late in the summer, and even all through a moderate winter, if they are managed well for succession. The flowers are bright and abundant, and nothing can well beat them in appearance during the

untoward season in which they bloom. The single ones have, for the most part, the finest made petals, and we have seen the flower cupped like a tulip, and even as large as some tulips. The so-called double varieties are not properly so called, because they have but a single row of petals, and a crowded fuzzy centre of small florets. These also are pretty border flowers, but they are not so hardy nor so constant as their single brethren; nor are they much better representatives of double flowers than they are of single ones, inasmuch as we require petals instead of florets to constitute a proper double flower. It is from the single ones we should breed; and when they come, as some will, with two rows of petals, we should breed from these until we increase the number of rows of petals sufficiently to reach the centre. We shall be told this is impossible-be it so. We remember, however, to have seen in the year 1841 a beautiful collection of seedlings, some with as many as four rows of petals, smooth, thick, even and bright; and, as some of that seed was distributed, we hope if any body has been fortunate to bring good flowers, and save seed, they will be good enough to send us a pinch. We regarded those seedlings as a race from which double flowers might be one day produced. As it is, there are two classes of flowers: the single, with a seed vessel and anthers; and what we shall call the single, with a centre of florets, falsely called double; there is a third class, which are properly called semi-double, on account of their having two, three, or four rows of petals. And as everything must have a begin

ning, and "a thing well begun, is more than half done," we will give the properties of each, that those who buy or raise seedlings may have some guide to enable them to select the best varieties.

THE SINGLE ANEMONE.

The petals should be broad and thick, smooth at the edges, slightly cupped, forming no indentation where they lap over or join.

The flower should therefore be a very shallow round saucer.

The colour bright and distinct, the anthers and seed vessel small.

The flower large; the stem stiff and elastic, and no matter of what length, because, if they bloomed close to the foliage, the flower would be as handsome as if it were a foot from the ground.

THE (SO CALLED) DOUBLE ANEMONE.

The petals should be flat, but not reflexed, and one half of the shallow dish or saucer which it forms should be occupied by coloured florets of the form of half a globe, all pointing to the edge of the flower, and away from the centre.

They should differ in colour from the petals, and the more they are contrasted, the better they are.

We have said nothing about the choice of

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