P RI 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



P RI 



401 



would be endless, for every year produces vast quantities of 

 new flowers, differing continually in shape, size, and colour: 

 in the leaves also there is great variety, so that the skilful 

 florist cat* often distinguish the varieties by the leaves. It 

 seldom happens, so capricious is fancy, that such flowers as 

 are in great esteem one time, continue to be regarded a 

 few years after, still finer or larger flowers being produced 

 from seeds; and as the names convey little, and there are 

 no descriptions of them, it would be useless to give a list, 

 especially as the modern names are generally taken from 

 some "-real personage, with the raiser's or florist's name pre- 

 fixed. It will, however, be useful to the young florist to 

 enumerate the indispensable qualities of a fine Auricula. 

 They are these: 1. The stem should be strong, upright, and 

 of such a height as that the umbel of flowers may be above 

 the foliage of the plant. 2. The peduncles or footstalks of 

 the flowers should also be strong, and of a length proportioned 

 to the size and quantity of the flowers, which should not be 

 less than seven in number, that the umbel may be regular 

 and close. 3. The tube, eye, and border, should be well 

 proportioned ; which they will be, if the diameter of the first 

 be one part, of the eye three, and of the whole border 

 about six parts. 4. The circumference of the border should 

 be round, or nearly so, or at least not what is called starry. 

 5. The antherse ought to be large, bold, and fill the tube 

 well; and the tube should terminate rather above the eye, 

 which should be very white, smooth, and round, without 

 cracks, and distinct from the ground colour. 6. The ground 

 colour should be bold and rich, and regular, whether it be in 

 one uniform circle, or in bright patches; it should be distinct 

 as the eye, and only broken at the outer part into the edging : 

 a fine black, purple, or bright coffee-colour, contrast best 

 with the white eye; a rich blue, or bright pink, is pleasing; 

 but a glowing scarlet, or deep crimson, would be most desir- 

 able, if well edged with a bright green; this, however, can 

 seldom be expected. The green edge is the principal cause 

 of the variegated appearance in this flower; and it should be 

 in proportion to the ground-colour, that is, about one half of 

 each. The darker grounds are generally covered with a 

 white powder, which seems necessary, as well as the white 

 eye, to guard the flower from the scorching heat of the sun's 

 rays. All flowers that are deficient in any of the above pro- 

 perties, are turned out into the borders of the garden, or 

 rejected wholly, by every good florist, for, as there are varieties 

 every year from seeds, the bad ones must make room for their 

 betters; but in some persons, the passion for new flowers so 

 much prevails, that supposing the old flower to be greatly 

 preferable to a new one, the latter must take place, because 

 it is of their own raising. Propagation and Culture. In order 

 to have good flowers from seeds, select the best flowers, which 

 should be exposed to the open air, that they may have the 

 benefit of showers, without which they rarely produce good 

 seed. The time of their ripening, which is in June, may be 

 easily known by the seed-vessel turning to a brown colour, 

 and opening: care therefore must be taken, lest the seeds be 

 scattered out of the vessel, for it will not be all fit to gather 

 at the same time. The time for sowing is commonly in Au- 

 gust, but any time before Christmas will be soon enough. 

 The best soil is good fresh light sandy mould, mixed with 

 very rotten cow-dung, or very rotten dung from the bottom 

 of an old hot-bed. With this fill the pots, boxes, or baskets, 

 in which the seeds are to be sown ; and having levelled the 

 surface very smooth, sow the seeds thereon, sifting over them 

 a little rotten willow mould ; then cover them with a net or 

 wire, to prevent cats or birds from scratching out or burying 

 the seeds, in which case they remain a year in the ground 



before the plants appear, if they ever appear at all. Many 

 persons never cover the seeds, but leave them on the surface 

 for the rain to wash them into the ground, which is often the 

 best method. Let the boxes, &c. be so placed as to receive 

 half the day's sun, during the winter season ; but in the 

 beginning of March, remove them where they may have only 

 the morning sun till ten o'clock; for the young plants will 

 now soon begin to appear, which, exposed to one whole 

 day's sun only, will be all destroyed. They require water 

 often in dry summer weather, but always in small quantities 

 at each time. In July, the plants will be large enough to 

 remove: a bed or boxes, of the above-mentioned soil, should 

 then be prepared, and the plants set in it in squares of three 

 inches. If a bed be preferred to boxes, they will require 

 shading every day, till thoroughly rooted, and also in very 

 hot dry weather; but if placed in baskets or boxes, they may 

 easily be removed into a shady place. When the seedlings 

 are planted in beds, there should be some rotten cow-dung 

 laid about ten inches under the surface, and beaten down 

 close and smooth; this will prevent the worms from drawing 

 the young, plants out of the earth, which they generally 

 accomplish where this precaution is neglected. This dung 

 should be laid about half a foot thick, which will entirely 

 prevent the worms getting through it, until the plants are 

 well established in the beds; and the roots will strike down 

 into the dung by the spring time, which will make their 

 flowers stronger than usual: these beds should be exposed to 

 the eastern, but screened from the southern sun. When all 

 the plants are come up, and are thus removed out of their 

 boxes or pots, level the earth gently again ; for it often hap- 

 pens, that some of the seeds will lie in the ground two years 

 before they appear, especially if they were covered too deep 

 when sown, as already observed. In the following spring 

 many of these flowers will shew; when such as have good pro- 

 perties may be selected, and each of them removed into a 

 pot of the same prepared earth, and preserved until the next 

 season, when it will be easy to judge more correctly of the 

 quality of the flower. Those that produce plain-coloured or 

 small flowers should be taken out and planted in borders in 

 the out-parts of the garden, to make a show, or serve for 

 nosegays, &c; the others, which do not produce their flowers 

 in the same year, may be taken up, and transplanted into a 

 fresh bed, till they also can be examined. The manner of 

 propagating these flowers, when obtained, is from offsets or 

 slips, taken from the old roots in April, when the flowers are 

 in bloom: these offsets must be planted into small pots, filled 

 with the same sort of earth as was before directed for the 

 seedlings, and during the summer season should be set in a 

 shady place, and must be often, but very gently, refreshed 

 with water, but in the autumn and winter should be sheltered 

 from violent rains. The spring following, these young plants 

 will produce flowers, though but weak. Soon after they are 

 past flowering, put them into larger pots, and the second year 

 they will blow in perfection. In order to ensure a fine bloom of 

 these flowers, the florist must observe the following directions : 

 First, preserve the plants from too much wet in winter, which 

 often rots and spoils them, but let them have as much free air 

 as possible; nor should they be too much exposed to the sun, 

 which is apt to forward their budding for flower too soon; 

 and then the frosty mornings, which often occur in March, 

 destroy their buds when unprotected. To prevent this, those 

 who are very curious in these flowers, place their pots, in 

 autumn, under a common hot-bed frame, where, in good 

 weather, the plants may enjoy the full air, by drawing off the 

 glasses; and in great rains, snow, or frost, the plants may be 

 screened by covering them. Where this method is practised 



