JULY. 153 



AURICULAS. 



Permit me to begin my letter by congratulating you on the acces- 

 sion of " Mediterraneus" to the list of your contributors, and to 

 thank him for the interesting and useful information he has afforded. 

 To shew him how carefully I have studied his instructions for a prac- 

 tical purpose, I would beg to call his attention to a remark of his 

 upon the Camellia, Section I., Whites, No. 5, Low's Imbricata, 

 which he cautions us from confounding with its namesake Alba im- 

 bricata. Now on turning to Messrs. E. G. Henderson's Catalogue, 

 I find " Imbricata alba, Low's." And again under the word Alba, 

 " Alba imbricata, Low's, fine white." But no " Imbricata, Low's," 

 without the adjunct alba. This completely puzzles me, and leaves 

 me in uncertainty whether I should be following his directions or 

 contravening them, if I were to order it. 



My object, however, in writing is to inquire after the fulfilment 

 of a promise made by you in the Hints for the Month in the May 

 Number, under the head of Auriculas. As I live 150 miles from Lon- 

 don, and see but few flowers except what I grow myself, please 

 tell me all about your stands at the show and your stages at home, 

 as you promised, before it is too late for this year's arrangements. 

 [Be assured we shall not forget our promise — Ed.] 



It is easy to believe that Cheetham's Lancashire Hero is the finest 

 variety you have bloomed this season. Can any other equal it in 

 any season or under any one's hands? With me it absolutely an- 

 swered the theoretical perfection by which we describe what an 

 Auricula should be. But the edge was green, and not grey as de- 

 scribed. Can any one say if that was owing to the plant being 

 young, and only producing four pips? I pollened them with Bee- 

 ston's Apollo, of which, if any thing comes of it, you may hear some 

 years hence. W T hat has become of Sir John Moore this year ? its 

 name does not appear among the conspicuous ones of your stands. 



In your April Number Mr. Cooke directed us to use a drainage 

 of broken bones for Auriculas ; and as I had the opportunity of try- 

 ing the plan, I have done so with a dozen. But the consequence in 

 about three days afterwards (owing to the presence of water among 

 the bones) was such, that I wrote immediately to a gardening peri- 

 odical for advice. And I mention it to you, as I confess I think it a 

 most hazardous practice to make a charnel-house of the receptacle 

 for the most delicate and aristocratic of flowers, as your correspon- 

 dent advises us. Whatever may come of this experiment, I shall 

 never follow that advice again. What they appear to me to like best, 

 and in which their foliage is always most vigorous and glossy and deep 

 coloured, is the same that the Cineraria so delights in, — half-decayed 

 leaves. Some of the Lancashire growers appear to me to use no- 

 thing but that and decayed wood. I doubt, however, if on such 

 diet they would produce flowers in proportion. A very useful way 

 of forming a stimulating compost I tried last year, and mean to con- 

 tinue ; namely, at this time of the year to soak some fresh sheep- 



