33 



Emmerton, that it may be done at any time from 

 February to August. Hogg, when he first wrote 

 on the Auricula, was in favour of planting slips in 

 August, but, in his " Supplement," pubhshed thir- 

 teen years subsequently, he recommends all offsets to 

 be removed from the parent plants in March, be- 

 cause they grow quickest in spring. This season is 

 now almost universally adopted for propagating by 

 slips, and the course of proceeding has been thus 

 succinctly stated by Mr. Groom, florist, of Clapham : 



The best time for propagating is the month of 

 February, taking the offsets and potting them (if 

 strong), one in a three-inch pot, or, if small, four or 

 five in the same sized pot ; the most suitable soil is a 

 mixture of one half loam, laid up for three years, 

 one fourth top spit of a rich meadow, and one fourth 

 rotten dung, five years old. The situation should 

 be south or south-east, on a dry bottom, and the 

 plants set near the glass, shaded from the sun when 

 powerful, as they get forward for bloom. {Gard. 

 Journ, 1846, 200.) 



For the following more copious directions we are 

 indebted to Mr. Emmerton : — 



The slips are often so situated that, by removing a 

 little of the earth, they may be taken from the mo- 

 ther-plant with the finger and thumb, or with a sharp 

 piece of wood, made for that purpose in the shape of 

 a knife, without taking the plant out of the pot ; this 



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