, AURICULA, 245 



that combined with a crimson ground colour, being 

 very rare, is probably on that account prized the 

 most. 



Florists have given recipes for composts with the 

 trifling exactness of invalids who pore upon diete- 

 tics and weigh their food. Sound earth, vegetable 

 earth, peat earth, decayed willow- wood, and wood 

 ashes, are recommended in proportions from a half 

 down to twelfth and twenty-fourth parts. No 

 doubt such a commixture may be very good, but 

 some other will do just as well. Let the compost 

 be rich and light, consisting of one half of old rot- 

 ted cow's dung, either from a spent hotbed or ga- 

 thered from the fields, and the other half black 

 mould from the garden, adding more or less of peat- 

 moss and sand according as the soil is light or heavy 

 the whole mass to be so blended as to assume a 

 uniform consistence. With this fill the flowerpots 

 within an inch of the top, taking care to cover the 

 hole in the bottom with a piece of slate to prevent 

 the intrusion of worms. The pots should be six 

 or seven inches wide and about the same measure 

 in depth. Smaller ones may be used for bringing 

 forward young plants, whether seedlings or offsets. 

 The proper time for planting or repotting is in 

 August. Strip every plant of its decayed leaves 

 and of all stumps of roots beneath the young fibres, 

 and, having firmed the earth with the hand, give 

 a plentiful watering. The pots may then be closely 

 set together in the frame, which should be half 

 filled with sawdust, in which the pots are to be im- 



