SEPTEMBER. 265 



however, to observe, that the Manetti stocks sent to me are strong, 

 young, and good, but the Briers are not always so. Some are dry- 

 rinded ; others are like knob-sticks, with two thin roots, like the 

 " feelers of a lobster." Before, therefore, you can draw a just com- 

 parison, you must look into this. In my rich, friable garden, so highly 

 manured, the Roses on Manetti have bloomed beautifully. They began 

 their second series about the 24th of July, and are now (the 8th of 

 August), full of large and beautiful blooms. After their first bloom, 

 all Roses here were supplied with a shovelful of black manure. The 

 earth was scraped away, the manure put in over the earth on the roots, 

 and then, having been drowned with water, the earth scraped away 

 was replaced. The Manetti Roses are earthed up, like Potatoes, over 

 the bud union, a thing most essential to be done. Manetti Roses 

 require a deal of manure to supply the immense exhaustion ; and, to 

 prevent them going blind, you must not cut too hard. I cut them all 

 about one foot high the Saturday after Good Friday, to meet the 22nd 

 of June, and I thank Mr. Milne for the account he has given. The 

 present bloom, however, of autumnals, is far superior. The Roses are 

 larger, brighter, and more numerous. The manures which I use are 

 abundance of wood ashes (retainers of moisture), and decayed horse and 

 pig manure mixed with road scrapings. With plenty of this, and careful 

 summer pruning and watering, I get a quick and prolonged succession 

 of these glorious flowers. 



Allow me to thank Messrs. Cranston, Rivers, Gill (of Blandford), 

 and Davis (of Newbury), for the superb materials sent to me this 

 year. 



Aug. 8. W. F. Radclyffe. 



P.S. August 24. — Portemer and Eveque de Nimes, budded on a 

 brier two months ago, have fine buds, clean foliage, and appear to be 

 of good habit. 



AURICULAS AND THEIR CLASSES. 



A notice which I inserted in " Gossip for the Garden," having elicited 

 some letters on the subject of which I wrote, I am desirous of putting 

 the same* matter before the readers of the Florist, the sole object for 

 which I contend being the best means of advancing the cultivation of 

 this lovely flower, the chief point at issue being whether the system of 

 showing in the north of England, and the rules by which the judges 

 seem to be regulated, are those likely to effect this object. Anyone who 

 has grown them is, of course, aware that few flowers have made less 

 advance, and that in no tribe of florists' flowers are there so few additions 

 by seedlings ; and it is a matter of some importance to determine 

 whether the acknowledged difficulty of raising seedlings, and propagating 

 them when raised, is the only cause of this. If a good seedling Verbena 

 or Geranium is produced, in two or three years' time not a garden but 

 what possesses it ; an Auricula raised at the same time is still in the 

 raiser's hands, and will not probably leave them for a year or two 



