GROUPS OF GARDEN FLOWERS 3 



sort of culture a rich, well-prepared soil, and give water freely in dry 

 weather. Asters get ragged and worn out unless divided once in about 

 three years and replanted in freshly made-up ground. The beginner in 

 gardening, who is really interested in the pastime, should raise some seed- 

 lings. It is delightful to watch seedling plants flower j and how pleasurable 

 is it when some beautiful thing opens out, born into the world through 

 your efforts. Of course there are more blanks than prizes ; that is the 

 same in all walks of life. Sow the seed in pots when it is ripe, which 

 will be, of course, in the autumn. The seedlings will then be large 

 enough to plant out in the spring and flower during the autumn. There 

 is this advantage in raising seedling Asters, the plants soon flower. 

 One has not time to get weary with waiting. 



The list in the table (see end of book) has been prepared by Mr. 

 Beckett, of Aldenham Park gardens, Elstree, who grows Asters well 

 and has raised many beautiful varieties. It is a long list, but all are 

 good ; there is not a bad kind in it. 



Auricula (Primula Auricula). Early History This is what 

 is termed by fanciers the " Show n Auricula, or, more properly, the 

 Exhibition Auricula, because it has been grown for many generations 

 by a class of amateurs whose great delight was to exhibit these plants 

 in competition on a certain date, which was fixed in the south of 

 England about the 2oth of April, and in the Midland Counties about 

 the 27th of that month. They seldom fixed the date in May, although 

 the Auricula in the north has sometimes been in its best form in that 

 month ; but there is an old saying that, " The Auricula in May has had 

 its day." 



In the years following the publication of John Gerard's " Herbal " 

 in 1598, we cannot tell how the Auricula was cultivated, nor in what 

 manner the improvement of this flower was carried out ; evidently it 

 was a slow process, the art of cross-fertilisation not being understood. 

 We know but little of the garden Auricula as a finely developed flower 

 by the art of the gardener until the beginning of the nineteenth century. 

 The Lancashire weavers cultivated it as their favourite flower early in 

 the century, and it is owing to the care bestowed upon it by these 

 worthy old florists, and the rivalry excited by the annual competitions, 

 that the Auricula has arrived at its present state of perfection. The 

 inception of the work was theirs, yet it has been nobly carried out by 

 the present day fanciers, two of whom are yet happily with us, the 

 Rev. Francis D. Horner and Mr. Benjamin Simonite. The interest 

 excited by an Auricula exhibition is great even at the present time, 

 and the National Auricula Society annually holds an exhibition of all 

 classes of Auriculas, under the auspices of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, every year about the end of April. 



The history of the Auricula has frequently been written, but little 

 is known, except that the original parent is the Primula Auricula, 

 an Alpine species with leaves finely powdered with a white farina, and 

 flowers of a primrose colour in trusses. The leaves of the cultivated 

 varieties are sometimes without any powder, others are densely covered 

 with it, the flowers being of the most variable character ; and it is 



