340 



to eighteen inches thick, and in this state remain a year, turning it 

 over two or three times, and keeping it free from weeds." 



It is added, that " the pots for Auriculas should be hard baked: 

 the inner diameter of the top be six inches and a half, of the bottom 

 four inches, and they should be about seven inches deep, for com- 

 mon-sized blooming plants: but smaller plants and offsets should 

 have smaller shallower pots, and very large plants should have larger 

 pots in proportion: the bottom should have a small degree of con- 

 cavity, and the hole should be half an inch in diameter: the rims 

 should project about half an inch, in order to take up and remove 

 them with greater ease and safety. The pots should be buried in 

 wet earth, or immersed in water three or four days or a week, before 

 they are wanted, to take off their absorbent property." 



In the after-management of the plants, they should be potted 

 annually soon after bloom; curtailing their fibres, if grown very 

 long, and cutting off the lower part of the main root if too long or 

 decayed. The offsets at this season strike freely, and become well 

 established before winter. The plants should be carefully examined, 

 and where any unsoundness appears, be cut out entirely with a 

 sharp penknife, exposing the wounded part to the sun, and when it 

 is quite dry, applying a cement of bees-wax and pitch in equal 

 quantities, softened in the sun or before a fire. If the lower leaves 

 be yellow or dried up, they should be stripped off in a direction 

 downwards. Having put the hollow shell of an oyster over the hole 

 of the pot, three parts of it should be filled with compost, highest 

 in the middle, placing the plant there, with its fibres regularly dis- 

 tributed all round ; then filling the pot up with the compost, adding 

 a little clean coarse sand close round the stem on the surface, and 

 striking the bottom of the pot against the ground or table to settle 

 the earth. The true depth of planting is within half an inch of the 

 lowest leaves, as the most valuable fibres proceed from that part; 

 and the offsets will be thereby encouraged to strike root sooner. 

 When these have formed one or more fibres of an inch or two in 

 length, they may, by means of a piece of hard wood, or by the 

 fingers, be separated with safety, and planted round the sides of a 



