iiarch 20, 1873. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULf UBE AND COTTAGE GABDEXEE. 



241 



I have also had bulbs double the size of these. The single 

 varieties succeed the best under this treatment. This season 

 I have had the following beautifully in flower — viz., Prince 

 Albert Victor, Lord llacaulay, Leonidas, Baron Humboldt, 

 Voltaire, Alida Jacoba, Victor Hugo, Norma, L'Omement de 

 !a Nature, Mont Blanc, with many others having spikes from 

 6 inches to 8 inches in length. — E. C. Hiscox, Lee, Kent. 



THE AURICULA TO THE FRONT. 



Will the growers and lovers of the Auricula far and wide 

 give their hearty and substantial support to a movement which 

 will be inaugurated at the spring show of the Manchester 

 Botanical Society, April 22nd, in favour of this flower ? 



The Society offer us every encouragement for holding a first- 

 rate general exhibition of the Auricula in conjunction with 

 their Show. They will grant the free use of the Town Hall, 

 and the generous donation of £10 towards the prizes. If 

 those interested in the Auricula will now come forward and 

 take up the matter with downright good will, we may entertain 

 a hope of continued support from the Botanical Society, and 

 may found an exhibition, suited to both small and large growers, 

 which all may regard with pride. My name has been given in 

 as Honorary Secretary, and I am anxious to hear as soon as 

 possible from those who will be exhibitors, subscribers, or 

 both. I therefore invite communications from friends of the 

 Auricula not known to me. Let us try to establish some such 

 united show for the Auricula as we already have for the Tulip 

 in our Eoyal National Tulip Society, a most flourishing and 

 influential institution, whose prizes are sharply contested and 

 highly esteemed, and which has been the means in a great 

 degree of raising the standard of the TuUp till flowers are now 

 grown which leave " the Dutch "' far behmd, and many of our 

 old flowers too. 



If the Auricula is to be better known and more grown, it 

 must be brought forward in this public manner ; we growers 

 are few and scattered, our flowers little known beyond our- 

 selves. I should, indeed, grow all mine just as lovingly if 

 never another eye than mine enjoyed them ; but then this 

 seclusion is bad for the flowers — it lessens their chances of 

 finding extended cultivation, continued improvements, and 

 successors to ourselves. 



Traly sorry am I for the many sincere lovers of flowers who 

 are unacquainted with the cabn, unsatiating, incomparable 

 beauty of the Auricula. What other flower has her contrasts 

 of emerald, ebony, crimson, violet, and rich brown, and many 

 a shade between, that are worked in edge and circle round the 

 snow-white eye, pierced by the yellow, sometimes golden tube ? 

 I call the Auricula the fairest of our florists' gems, though I 

 have also the Polyanthus, Tuhp, Pink, Eanunculus, Eose, 

 Carnation, and Picotee. Yes ! I would rather be without the 

 Eose than without the Auricula. There 1 The Auricula in 

 April brings you a charm and fragrance that belong to the 

 spring, and which are not to be surpassed by all the colouring 

 and scent of lavish flowery June. — F. D. Hokser, Kirhbij 

 Mul:i'uril, Hipon. 



THE PEONUXCIATION OF GLADIOLUS. 



Is the extract you gave last week from Mr. Dombrain's 

 treatise on the Gladiolus he is represented as saying, " by 

 right it ought to be, I think, Gladiolus, aU short, as if spelt 

 Gladjolus, and the one which it, I suppose, retains is the 

 worst of the three. Gladiolus." 



As there is no rule to guide us but analogy in such cases as 

 this, permit me to ask Mr. Dombrain how he would pronormce 

 baliolus, filiolus, unciola, and alveolus ? If, as I presume, he 

 would say baliolus, filiolus, and unciola, why not Gladiolus ? 

 If not, then Mr. Dombrain must consider that Juvenal and 

 Plautus were wrong. — P. D. 



throughout Bengal, in Amboyna, Ceylon, Merqui, Chittagong, 

 Sylliet, on the Madras Peninsula, and it is also widely diffused 

 in alpine regions." By some writers it is said to be an aimual 

 plant ; but as it may certainly be preserved, in a proper tem- 

 perature, one or two winters at least, this designation can 

 hardly be correct ; though it may be raised from seeds, and 

 treated as an annual. 



Its pale-green serrated foliage is not devoid of interest, but 

 its chief attraction resides in its charming violet flowers, 

 which are produced profusely through the summer months up 

 to a very late period ; they are of that peculiar rich velvety 

 tint which the pencil of the most skilful artist is inadequate to 

 imitate successfully (for " who can paint like nature ? '') especi- 

 ally in the two lateral lobes of the coroUa, where it is most in- 

 tense ; after the flower has been some days expanded, it loses 

 a little of its depth, particularly if exposed to strong sunshine. 



FLOWERS FOR OUR BORDERS.— No. 2. 



TOEENTA ASIATICA.— Asiatic iorexia. 



This lovely plant when first introduced was supposed to re- 

 quire stove treatment, but fortunately, although the plant needs 

 a warm atmosphere in the winter season, it will, during the 

 summer months, bear a considerable reduction of temperature 

 below that originally believed to be necessary for its healthy 

 condition, growing luxuriantly in the greenhouse, or the 

 window of an ordinary apartment, and, under certain condi- 

 tions, in the open air. 



As its specific name implies, it is a native of Asia, " growing 



Torenin asiatica 



The young botanist will be interested in observing the 

 stamens, which, as in nearly all the Figworts — to which order 

 our plant belongs — are didynamous, or in two pairs, one of 

 which is considerably longer than the other ; in both pairs the 

 filaments are so curved as to bring into contact the one-celled 

 anthers, which adhere closely to each other; and at the base 

 of the two longest stamens wiU be found an appendage, differ- 

 ing but in length from the filament itself, and which is one of 

 the distinguishing marks of the genus Torenia. The stigma 

 is divided into two flat lobes or lips, as in the different species 

 of Mimulus, and exhibits the same curious sensibility to touch, 

 closing when irritated, as is seen in that genus ; this fact 

 appears to have hitherto escaped the notice of botanists. Many 

 of the Figworts have round stems, but in Torenia it is four- 

 angled. 



It is of the easiest possible propagation, cuttings 2 or 3 inches 

 long, planted under a glass in a pot of light, moist soil, and 

 placed upon a warm window, rooting with even greater readi- 

 ness than the well known Cuphea platycentra, which is one of 

 the quickest-rooting plants with which we are acquainted. 

 The plant affects a vegetable soil, and wiU do well in a mix- 

 ture of peat or leaf mould and sandy loam, with well-drained 

 pots of moderate size. 



When gro'n-n as a window plant, it is best trained upon a 

 flat trellis, which, from its rapid growth, it will speedily cover ; 

 and to induce its lateral extension, the extremity of the shoots 

 should be frequentlv pinched off ; or the pot may be suspended, 

 and the branches allowed to trail downwards, in which posi- 

 tion the elegant habit of the plant, combined with its lovely 

 blossoms, renders it a highly interesting object. We are in- 

 clined to believe that, during the summer months, this plant 



