NOVEMBER. 34] 



the case with Vines, and unless it can be proved that the soil in which 

 Vines have lived out of doors for hundreds of years is drier in winter 

 than in summer, we must conclude that keeping the roots of pot Vines 

 in winter in a soil as dry as dust must be very injurious to the plants." 



WINTERING OF AURICULAS. 



" Put your frames in a southerly or westerly aspect," says the Florist: 

 " Let your frames face the north-east during the winter," says the 

 " Gossip for the Garden:" " Turn your frames to the north," says a 

 contributor to the Florist. Now, here are differences of opinion with a 

 vengeance, and when doctors differ, who is to decide? Let us ask 

 common sense what it says, and I think that it will decide against the 

 westerly view of the case ; the inevitable result of that must be a con- 

 stant succession of freezing and thawing, which must be injurious to the 

 plants, and moreover the hurrying of them on into a premature bloom ; 

 and should, by any neglect, the plants, when in this forward state, be 

 left uncovered during a frosty night, you will have a crumpled bloom. 

 The Auricula naturally, we know, is an Alpine plant, lying warm under 

 its snow covering for months ; but high cultivation has made it tender, 

 and therefore we cannot with impunity allow it to be frozen much, 

 especially after the bloom has shown itself. My own opinion then, is, 

 to let them have an aspect in winter where they will not get much sun, 

 and not to remove them to a more sunny one until frost is pretty well 

 over, if at all ; yes, if at all — for I am not sure whether a north-east 

 aspect would not suit them in early spring, if you could break off the 

 wind. I shall try one frame this way this season, and report on the 

 result ; if I recollect right, this is the position of Dr. Plant's blooming 

 stage. And now, when one's pen goes off on the subject of Auriculas, 

 there is no knowing where it is to stop. I fear very much there is but 

 little prospect of a good bloom this spring ; from correspondents in all 

 directions — Scotland, Yorkshire, Cheltenham, &c. — there is the one 

 cry, " I never knew such a quantity of autumn trusses ;" and I can 

 add to the testimony. Last year it was confined, as far as I was con- 

 cerned, to two or three kinds ; now, it has spread like an epidemic all 

 over the frame, and no sort seems to be determined to be out of the 

 fashion. Mr. Lightbody says, " I have had great difficulty in supplying 

 even a dozen plants, nearly the whole of my stock having sent up 

 autumn blooms. I never experienced the like before." Were there a 

 probability of a mild winter this would not so much matter, but see 

 what an October we have — what a climax to one of the most extra- 

 ordinary seasons on record — on the 23rd of the month four degrees of 

 frost, all out-of-doors things blackened and dead, Chrysanthemums and 

 Pompones even looking miserable ; at least in the neighbourhood of 

 Brighton, Arundel, &c, where I have been, for what will be the state 

 of my own I do not exactly know. I am sorry for this, as far as my 

 favourite Auriculas are concerned ; there are so many who are now 

 growing them for the first time — so many, too, whose love of them has 



