54 



cayed horse-dung, maiden soil, in equal proportions, 

 to which he added some coarse river sand ; and this 

 succeeded very well. An Auricula grower at Prest- 

 wich, a few miles from Manchester, who, at the time 

 of his death, had been a cultivator of this flower for 

 nearly 60 years, with very remarkable success, em- 

 ployed a compost thus constituted : — 1 peck of rushes 

 (green) cut into small pieces not longer than 1 inch ; 

 1 ditto cow-dung and 2 ditto horse-dung, not fresh, 

 but old ; 1 ditto meadow soil ; ^ peck of bog or peat 

 earth ; ^ ditto coarse sand ; mixed at least three 

 months before used. That rushes, cut small and 

 mixed with all composts, is generally admitted to be 

 good by the practice of using them so general in Lan- 

 cashire. They appear to be beneficial from two causes, 

 viz., they keep the compost light, so that the air 

 can penetrate it, and they facilitate the drainage. It 

 is highly probable, also, that the rush may contain 

 saline matters that are peculiarly acceptable to the 

 Auricula. Rushes have a large amount of such saline 

 constituents, and some of them are quite pecuhar, 

 such as the salts formed with equisetic acid, in the 

 common horse-tail of our rivers (Equisetum fluvia- 

 tile). But besides these, there are in all rushes 

 several salts of potash and lime. 



Either of the foregoing, but especially Dr. Horner's 

 compost, we consider admirably suited to the growth 

 of the Auricula, but as our object is to concentrate in 



