AUE 



AUK 



of the mother-plant are quite open, cut 

 off the anthers of all of them with a 

 pair of sharp-pointed scissors, cover with 

 a hand-glass, dust the pistil with pollen 

 from the father-plant, and keep the 

 hand-glass over as before, until the flower, 

 beginning to fade, shows that there is 

 no danger of any other pollen being 

 intruded to frustrate your object. Gather 

 the seed-vessels as they become brown, 

 in June and July ; place them in the sun, 

 on a sheet of white paper, until they 

 burst. Bub out the seeds, and sow them 

 early in September, or keep them in the 

 seed-vessels, in a dry place, until March, 

 which is better. Sow them in a warm 

 border of light soil, or in boxes, under 

 glass ; cover them with a quarter of an 

 inch of the same soil. Keep the seed- 

 lings free from weeds, and, when they 

 have four or five leaves, transplant them 

 from the boxes, or from the border, into 

 a similar border, in rows eight inches 

 apart each way, there to remain until 

 they flower, which will be next spring. 

 Those that you mark as good must be 

 potted as soon as the bloom is over, and 

 treated as we shall direct for established 

 old plants. 



Culture of established Plants. We will 

 suppose that you have bought these while 

 blooming. Then, at the end of June, 

 when the blooming is quite over, re-pot 

 them, in order to have a strong growth 

 to flower finely next season. Have your 

 compost of light loam, rotten cowdung, 

 and decayed vegetable mould, in equal 

 parts, with a portion of sand, about one- 

 eighth, well-mixed, and in a state neithei 

 wet nor dry, ready in such quantities as 

 your stock of plants may require. Turn 

 out of their pots your blooming-plants 

 remove nearly all suckers that have roots 

 to them ; lay them on one side, then 

 shake off nearly all the old soil; trim 

 the roots sparingly, and then your plan 

 is ready for the new pot. Place a large 

 crock, or broken piece of pot, or an oyster 

 shell, over the hole of each pot ; pu 

 upon this a number of smaller crocks, tc 

 the depth of three quarters of an inch 

 then place upon them about half an incl 

 of the fibrous part of the loam, and upon 

 that a portion of your compost; then 

 with one hand hold the plant rathe 

 above the level of the rim of the po 

 and with the other fill in the compos 

 amongst the roots. Proceed thus unL 

 the pot is filled, and then gently strik 



the pot upon the bench, to settle the soil, 

 leaving hold of the plant, that it may 

 settle with the soil. This will bring the 

 soil level with the rim of the pot ; put a 

 little more soil around the plant, and 

 press it gently with your fingers, so as to 

 leave the soil a quarter of an inch below 

 the edge of the pot at the sides, and level 

 with it in the centre. Place them upon 

 a bed of coal-ashes, in a situation where 

 the sun does not shine upon them after 

 ten o'clock in the morning. The proper 

 sized pots for blooming-plants is the size 

 known as 32s : they are about 5J inches 

 i diameter, and of proportionate depth, 

 he suckers may either be put singly 

 nto small pots, or three or four in pots, 

 f the same size as those for the bloom- 

 ng-plants, and be treated in a similar 

 aanner. The single-pot plan is the best, 

 " you have room to winter them. "Water 

 aem all in fine weather, and look out for 

 lugs and worms, which would injure 

 lem. Keep them free from weeds, stir 

 le surface frequently, and shade them, 

 tirdughout July, August, and September 

 eneath a north wall, with a covering of 

 iled canvass, to draw down in very heavy 

 bowers. So soon as the cold nights and 

 leavy rains of autumn come on, the 

 )lants must be removed to their winter 

 uarters. 



Wintering. Dr. Horner, one of the 

 most successful of Auricula cultivators, 

 las employed, for many years, a frame 

 made purposely for protecting this flower 

 n winter, which he has thus depicted 

 and desciibed : 



'It stands on legs between two and 

 three feet high ; the top lights slide, and, 

 as shown in the diagram, may also be 

 propped up by means of an iron bar, per- 

 forated with holes two or three inches 

 apart, and which catch on a nail project- 

 ing from the wood on which the light 

 rests when down. It is permanently fixed 

 to the sadi by means of a small staple, 

 forming a moveable joint, and. when not 



