AURICULA. 43 



It must be either the Auricula or the Polyanthus de- 

 scribed by the poet in the following passage : 



" Oft have I brought thee flowers, on their stalks set 

 Like vestal primroses, but dark velvet 

 Edges them round, and they have golden pits." 



Keats's Endymion". 



Tiie Auricula is to be found in the highest perfection in 

 the gardens of the manufacturing class, who bestow much 

 time and attention upon this and a few other flowers, 

 as the tulip and pink. A fine stage of these plants is 

 scarcely ever to be seen in the gardens of the nobility 

 and gentry, who depend upon the exertions of hired 

 servants, and cannot therefore compete in these nicer 

 operations of gardening with those who tend their flowers 

 themselves, and watch over their progress with paternal 

 solicitude. 



AZALEA. 



BHODORACE^. PENTANDRIA MOXOGYNIA. 



Azalea is derived from the Greek, and signifies dry. 



Millar says the Azalea is so named because it grows 

 in a dry soil ; but this must be a strange oversight — for in 

 the next page he tells us that it grows naturally in a moist 

 soil, in North America, and that unless it has a moist soil 

 it will not thrive. 



The Azalea is a beautiful flowering shrub. The naked- 

 flowered Azalea, in its native country, grows fourteen or 

 fifteen feet high : here it is never more than half that 

 height. Of this species, the flowers appear before the 

 leaves : they are red, or white and red, and in great 

 abundance. This shrub is common in the woods of New 



