244 AURICULA. 



roof. Some of the family are hardy and beautiful 

 as spring flowers on the open borders ; but the 

 more delicate cannot endure the pelting of the rain 

 which falls in April, the season of their beauty. 



A glass frame is therefore essential to the saving 

 of the fine meal with which the flowers and some- 

 times the leaves are dusted, and which seems de- 

 signed to moderate the heat of the sun, but which 

 has in itself no defence against the washing of the 

 rain ; and hence those plants which are brought to 

 great fineness by cultivation soon perish or grow 

 poor when neglected. The best specimens at first 

 raised from seed are quickly propagated by offsets 

 from the roots: and as cultivators have great ten- 

 derness for such offspring, though more numerous 

 than they can rear, you have only to open an 

 asylum and it will soon be filled. 



It were vain to attempt particular descriptions 

 of five hundred varieties. As to the general pro- 

 perties of a good plant, the stem should be of such 

 length as to carry its head of flowers erect and 

 raised above the foliage. About seven or eight 

 pips, or single blossoms, make a rich and close 

 umbel of flowers. The circumference of the border 

 of each blossom should be round, the anthers large, 

 the eye smooth, white, and circular; the ground 

 colour should be equal on all sides, defined next to 

 the eye, and only broken where it blends with the 

 edging. The favourite ground colours are black, 

 purple, dark brown, rich blue, bright pink, crimson, 

 or glowing scarlet. A green edging is fine; but 



