Febrnarj- 13, 1866. ] 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTUEB AND COTTAGE GAEDHNER. 



123 



summer months — if I can suceeeil in doing this, I shall be the 

 means of introducing a class of plants to our gardens, that will 

 not be easily surpassed for their beauty and usefulness. 



I have not yet tried the plant in heat, but intend to do so, if 

 I be spared this spring, and I have no doubt that it will strike 

 as easily as a Lobelia, or a Verbena, after it has been growing 

 freely in a gentle heat for a few weeks. If this should prove to 

 be the case, those who do not possess the plant, by procuring a 

 few plants now, may by bedding-out time raise some thousands 

 from these. I have no doubt that Viola corunta may still be 

 found in the Chelsea Botanic Garden, from a plant in which 

 theifignre above referred to was taken. 



Before the time for bedding-out shall have arrived, I will 

 name some of the plants that may be used with good effect 

 with Viola eomuta. — .T. Wills. 



AURICULAS. 



I HAVE often wondered how the doctor feels who, after having 

 felt the pulses, looked at the tongues, and prescribed for the 

 internal mechanism of half the county side, finds himself laid 

 by, and cannot quite make out his own symptoms — nay, if a 

 wise man, comes to the conclusion that he is about the worst 

 judge of himself and his ailments, and sends off to his brother 

 professional in the next parish to dose and doctor him. I have 

 latterly thought, too, how the farmer feels when this dread 

 rinderpest enters his stockyard, aud sees one after another of 

 his fine beasts hanging their heads and showing uumistakeable 

 symptoms of being attacked. I think I now Imow a little of it. 

 This time last year I had as fine a collection of Auriculas as 

 one need have seen. I had been consulted by Auricula growers 

 far and wide, had prescribed for their maladies, had encou- 

 raged the forming of collections, and now I am reduced so in 

 numbers that I am almost ashamed to own I have a collection. 

 I have seen a disease which is quite as great a mystery as the 

 rinderpest, and quite as destructive, making a clean sweep of 

 dozen after dozen of my finest plants ; and tliis, let it be re- 

 membered, of a plant which one cannot propagate as one will, 

 nor, indeed, obtain for either love or money. I can quite sym- 

 pathise with a good imele of mine, on whose farm the rinder- 

 pest first appeared in these parts. " I didn't so much mind 

 those I had bought ; but when I saw those I had reared from 

 their very calf-hood dying, it was trying work." Here were 

 plants I had watched over from their tiny offset state, had been 

 growing up to be blooming plants, aud they are now dwindled 

 away. How this has come about I know not, but as it com- 

 menced after their being repotted I must presume it was some- 

 thing in the compost. Yet I had prepared this with the gi-eatest 

 care : it was all old, the manure thoroughly weU rotted, aud 

 the loam apparently good. I had repotted every one myself, 

 had been attentive to the watering, kept them from rain, and 

 did, in fact, all I had told others so often to do, aud yet they 

 went. They did not damp off, but fairly dwindled away. They 

 seemed resolutely to refuse to root in the pots, and, of course, 

 there was no hope for them. Had I thought of this sooner, 

 even though it was their season of rest, I should have moved 

 them out of it ; but it was only in correspondence with Mr. 

 Lightbody that it was suggested to me. He told me, and 

 Mr. C. himself confirmed it to me, that Mr. Campbell a few 

 years ago lost nearly all his collection by using loam in which 

 iron existed. In my case I am afraid something of this kind 

 was the cause. Unfortunately there is no grower within fifty 

 miles of me, and hence we cannot take counsel together about 

 them, as I could about other flowers, if they were going wrong. 

 If Gladioluses are queer, or Geraniums spotty, one can easily 

 find neighbours who can talk with you about them ; but the 

 Auricula has so few friends that we are not often thrown 

 together, and hence we must consult oiu: own judgment, which 

 is often at fault. 



I have been led into these remarks by a request forwarded 

 to me from " A. C," who wants to know about fertUising 

 Auriculas — first, how he is to cross them, &c. : secondly, whether 

 he is also to fertilise with their o^-n poUen those which pro- 

 duce seed shyly; thirdly, whether anv one would exchange 

 dupUcates with him. With regard to the first question, I do 

 not beUeve that cross-breeding has been much attempted with 

 Am-iculas, aud I am confident no certain results could be reUed 

 on by any such process. The same pod of seed wiU produce 

 green, grey, ^hite, and self varieties, and even the Alpine tyjje ; 

 and I should say that if Cf oss-fertilisation is to be attempted, 

 I shoaid adviae that the constitution of the mother plant be 



considered, and the colour or fonn of the male parent. Thus, 

 for example, I should take Waterhouse's Conqueror, aud fer- 

 tilise it with the pollen of Chapman's Maria, or Lovely Anne, 

 and put on it the pollen of Violet, and in some such way 

 endeavour to obtain the various properties which are considered 

 essential to the maidng of a good flower. All Alpine flowers 

 should be excluded fi-om the frames of any one who is par- 

 ticular in growing for seed ; and, of com'se, it will be necessary 

 to prevent the intrusion of bees, moths, &c. 



As to the second point, there is little doubt, L should think, 

 that fertilising with their own pollen would ensure greater cer- 

 tainty ; but I have never found that there was any great diffi- 

 culty in obtaining seed, although I have never been able to 

 afford the time and trouble necessary for raising seedlings. 



Asto the third point — the exchange of plants, that is a diffi- 

 cult matter also. Probably his better plan would be to make 

 out a list of the plants he has, affix his price to them, and 

 endeavour to obtain a customer for them, and then lay out the 

 purchase money on varieties which he does not possess. If 

 he wishes to do that, and will send you such a list, I shall 

 gladly tn- to help him in the matter. I regret that my own 

 plants are iu such an unhealthy condition that I could not 

 offer any of them in exchange : and, indeed, exchanges rarely 

 answer — each party considers himself hartUy done by, however 

 anxious each may be to act fairly. Indeed, as he is a near 

 neighbotu- of Mr. Turner, of Slough, he woidd find little diffi- 

 culty, I should think, in making some arrangement with him. 



I have come to the conclusion that for us, at any rate, in 

 these southern latitudes, the best time for repotting "is imme- 

 diately after the blooming season is over rather than in the 

 autumn. The plants have by that time been growing away 

 for some months, and I do not think they so readily make roots 

 then as they do when in the height of their growth — at least 

 this is the plan I purpose pursuing this year. It is Mr. 

 Turner's plan, and there is no better grower' than he is. If I 

 fail this year I shall close the concern, and go in for growing 

 Cabbages or Potatoes. The only way in which I can console 

 myself is, that I could not tell that the loam was bad. Gera- 

 niums throve iu it lustily : but then they gi-ow in almost any- 

 thing, while the Auricula is as dainty in its food as a countess's 

 lap dog. I am not one of those to say die, and so I shall not 

 give up yet, and wish " A. C." and all other lovers of the 

 flower better success than has attended — -D., Deal. 



THE ESPERIONE GRAPE— WINE— POTATOES. 



With regard to the Esperione Vine, and in reply to "A 

 ViXE AjiATEun, Stou-market," I beg to say that in consequence 

 of numerous letters addi-essed to me on the subject, I wrote to 

 Mr. Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, offering him a bimdle of cut- 

 tings from the Vine which I formerly received from Mr. Old- 

 aker ; and at the same time I requested Mi-. Pavers to allow 

 me to mention the ciicumstance in these pages, as I had no 

 doubt that it would be welcomed by a great many. Mr. Rivers 

 kindly answered me as follows : — " I thank you for your offer 

 of a bunch of Esperione cuttings. I have been the great 

 champion of this sort, which I have cultivated for twenty-five 

 years. Some few years ago Beaton disputed with me in the 

 Journal about it, and wished the world to think it was merely 

 a variety of the Hamburgh ; but I would not give in, for his 

 Esperione leaves died off yellow, while the true sort, as you 

 well know, has its leaves in autumn of a fine crimson and 

 purple. Once or twice, nine years ago, I bought some Vines 

 under the name to supply orders, but they all proved wrong, 

 their leaves at once betraying them." 



I was bom between Stowmarket and Bury St. Edmunds, 

 therefore I can guarantee Stowmai-ket to be just the neighbom-- 

 hood to suit the Esperione, and now that " A Vine Ajiatece " 

 can succeed in procuring the true kind, I trust he may event- 

 ually have the same success with it in my dear native county 

 as I have had in Oxfordshire. In 186.5, from the Vines gi-owing 

 against the stone walls in the open air, I have taken 374 lbs. 

 of well-ripened Grapes, clear from their stalks, from which I 

 have made forty-six gallons of wine, and it promises to be very 

 good. I am also almost ashamed to own that I cut a hundred 

 bunches of the Grape for eating from one Vine growing imder 

 glass, and the same Vine produced ninety-seven fine bunches 

 of Grapes in 1S64. 



" D." of Deal, is wi'ong in supposing that it was I who re- 

 commended to him the varieties of Potatoes he mentions at 

 page 62. I have grown Sutton's Racehorse, aud it preyed so. 



