1. The flowers should be circular and large. 2. They should expand flat, and the cup which is in the centre should stand out well.

3. The petals should be thick, smooth, firm, free from notch or roughness on the edges, and have no points.

4. The bunch of flowers should consist of not less than seven; the foot-stalks should be of such length as to allow the flowers to touch each other at the edge, and present an even, though rounding, or dome-like surface, with one bloom in the middle, the other six forming a circle round it.

5. The stem should be strong, firm, elastic, and not more than ten inches in length. The leaves should be short, broad, and bright, and there must not be more than one flower-stem to a show flower.

6. If the variety be white, it should be pure; and the yellow cup should be bright. If the variety be yellow, it cannot be too bright.

Double flowers, and narcissus of numerous kinds, with only one or two flowers in a sheath, will not be considered subjects of exhibition, except in collections of forced flowers.

PROPERTIES OF THE TULIP.

1. The cup should form when quite expanded from half to a third of a hollow ball. To do this, the petals must be six in number; broad at the ends, smooth at the edges, and the divisions between the petals scarcely to show an indenture.

2. The three inner petals should set close to the three outer ones, and the whole should be broad enough to allow of the fullest expansion without quartering (as it is called), that is, exhibiting any vacancy between the petals.

3. The petals should be thick, smooth, and stiff, and keep their form well.

4. The ground should be clear, and distinct, whether white or yellow. The least stain, even at the lower end of the petal, would render a tulip comparatively valueless.

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5. Roses, byblomens, and bizarres, are the three classes into which tulips are divided. The first have a white ground, and crimson, or pink, or scarlet marks; the second have white grounds, and purple, lilac, or black marks; and the last have yellow grounds, with any coloured marks.

6. Whatever be the disposition of colours or marks upon a tulip, all the six petals should be marked alike, and be therefore perfectly uniform.

7. The feathered flowers should have an even, close feathering all round, and whether narrow or wide, light or heavy, should reach far enough round the petals to form, when they are expanded, an unbroken edging all round.

8. If the flower have any marking besides the feathering at the edge, it should be a beam, or bold mark down the centre, but not to reach the bottom, or near the bottom of the cup; the mark or beam must be similar in all the six petals.

9. Flowers not feathered, and with flame only, must have no marks on the edges of the flower. None of the colour must break through to the

edge. The colour may be di-posed in any form so that it be perfectly uniform in all the petals, and does not go too near the bottom.

10. The colour, whatever it be, must be dense and decided. Whether it be delicate and light, or bright, or dark, it must be distinct in its outline, and not shaded, or flushed, or broken.

11. The height should be eighteen to thirtysix inches; the former is right for the outside row in a bed, and the latter is right for the highest row.

12. The purity of the white, and the brightness of the yellow, should be permanent, that is to say, should stand until the petals actually fall.

PROPERTIES OF THE IRIS.

This flower is composed of three principal and three secondary petals or divisions. The three principal fall down, and the others stand

up.

A glance at many of the families will soon decide a very important property in some, and deficiency in others- the breadth of the three principal petals. It will occur to the untaught child, that the flower which presents the largest portion of rich surface is the best; all who have grown the common Iris know it has narrow, mean looking petals, but the kind which has been propagated in England has a broad, rich looking petal, and upon this feature does the beauty of the Iris turn.

The three principal divisions, or petals, should

be broad enough to touch each other, and form an arch or graceful curve, best described as onethird of a hollow ball, or reversed cup, level at the lower edge by reason of the bluntness of the three petals at the outer end, which should form a circular outline on looking down upon them. The three smaller petals should stand up, and be perfectly clear of the three that fall down.

The three lower petals should be of a rich velvety texture, and be thick, smooth on the edges, firm in their places, and whether selfcoloured, striped, mottled, shaded, or spotted, the colour should be well defined. The three upper ones should be of a different colour, and of smooth or enamel kind of texture; the greater the contrast of colour the better.

The Iris is a dwarf plant, and though three petals fall down, and three stand up, and the fall of the broad petals is too sudden, and on looking down on them hardly form any recognisable outline, it is capable of being produced with a fall not so sudden, a curve perfectly graceful; and the great advantage of this will be, that the entire surface may be seen at once, instead of a portion only.

The flowers should open but one at a time, that the beauty of the plant may be prolonged, the flower should be eighteen inches from the ground, and when full grown and expanded be four inches across.

PROPERTIES OF THE ANTIRRHINUM.

1. The plant should be dwarf, the flowers abundant, the mouth wide, and the more the inner surface turns up to hide the tube, the better.

2. The tube should be clear and pure if white, and bright if any other colour; and the mouth, and all the inner surface, should be of a different colour and texture, and form a contrast with the tube.

3. The petal should lap over at the indentations, so as not to show them; the texture of the tube should be like wax, or enamel ; the inside surface, which laps over, should be velvety.

4. When the flower is striped or spotted, the marking should be well defined in all its varieties; the colour should be dense, whatever that colour may be.

5. The flowers should form spikes of six or seven blooms, close but not in each other's way, and the footstalks should be strong and elastic to keep them from hanging down close to the stem, which they will if the footstalks are weak.

PROPERTIES OF THE MIMULUS.

The mimulus or monkey flower, familiar to every body under the title of the musk plant, does not prepare us to expect anything out of the common way in the same family. It is a weedy,