AURICULA. 89 



proportioned in length to the size and number of the 

 flowers, which should not be less than seven. The tube, 

 eye, and border should be well-proportioned ; that is, the 

 diameter of the tube one-sixth, and that of the eye (in- 

 cluding the tube) one-half the diameter of the whole 

 flower. The circumference of the border should be a 

 perfect circle ; the anthers should be large, and fill the 

 tube ; and the tube should terminate rather above the 

 eye, which should be very white, smooth, round, and 

 distinct from the ground-colour. The ground-colour 

 should be bold, rich, and regular, whether in a circle, or 

 in bright patches : it should be distinct at the eye, and 

 only broken at the outer part into the edging. The dark 

 grounds are usually covered with a white powder, which 

 seems necessary to guard the flower from the scorching 

 heat of the sun. 



Perhaps there is no flower more tenderly cherished by 

 the cultivators than the Auricula: they wait upon and watch 

 over it like a mother over her infant. 



-" Auriculas, enrich'd 



With shining meal o'er all their velvet leaves." 



Thojison. 



One Auriculist (for the science deserves a separate ap- 

 pellation) has devoted a little volume to its culture. An 

 aspirant in this science is apt, however, to be startled on 

 learning that the object of his adoration has a singular 

 propensity for meat, and that a good part of its bloom is 

 actually owing, like an alderman's, to this consumption of 

 flesh. Juicy pieces of meat are placed about the root, so 

 that it may in some measure be said to live on blood. 

 This undoubtedly lessens its charms in ^ome eyes. Its florid 

 aspect somehow becomes unnatural; and the " shining 

 meal," with which Thomson says it is " enriched," being 



