THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 295 



take a seat beside the frame with a rather large and very soft camers- 

 hair pencil in my hand, and a little air in my chest. To be sure, 

 there's always air in my chest, but now I want it as a mechanical 

 agent to cleanse the plants, and so I draw myself up, and inflate 

 my lungs, as I hold up a plant and search through it with my eye to 

 determine if it is lousy. With a good "puff" from my own pair of 

 bellows — the pair Nature presented me on my birth-day — I send them 

 flying against their will, and then I ply the pencil to remove any that 

 still stick fast after such a bronchial tornado. It makes an agreeable 

 hour's work to blow and brush a lot of auriculas in this way, and 

 gives one a grand appetite for whatever meal is to follow. I have 

 no doubt whatever, if we could keep some one in whom there were 

 signs of consumption so employed, with a little walking for a change 

 of exercise, the whole constitution would be changed for the better, 

 and the disease nipped in the bud, or we may say blown away. The 

 next best method to pufiing the fly away with the breath is to 

 employ a common bellows, but the human bellows is the best. 



Jt must always be borne in mind that the auricula is one of the 



hardiest plants in cultivation. It will not be likely to sufter by 



frost in winter, but damp is death to it. Prom this time till spring 



returns, the cultivator must be extremely cautious in respect of 



giving water, for if slopped about under and over the pots, mischief 



will result ; if poured carelessly over the leaves, canker will appear. 



On the other hand, they must never go quite dry, for that is nearly 



as bad as being constantly wet. Hit the happy medium, and above 



air things treat them as hardy plants, for which protection from 



snow, rain, and mist, is of much more importance than protection 



from mild frost, or from a genial atmosphere, at any time. From 



now till frost comes, keep the lights oft", unless you live in a very 



smoky atmosphere, in which case the lights must be kept always over 



them, but with a current of air through ; but put on the lights 



when there is any expectation of snow or heavy rain, and in respect 



of frost, shield them from it as perfectly as possible without resorting 



to any coddling process. I am warned by the Editor that this series 



on the auricula must be completed within the year, therefore I will 



endeavour in two more papers to say all I have to say about it, and 



then take up some other favourite. My principal object in this 



paper has been to show that those who have entered upon auricula 



growing through the persuasions of the Floral AYokld, need not 



go to the expense of having frames made expressly for keeping their 



plants during the winter. But should any of our readers wish to 



have the most proper kind of auricula-frames ever seen or heard of, 



they may find a model for their construction at page 300 of Hibberd'a 



" Garden Favourites." 



