July 13, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



21 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day Day 





Average 



Sun 



Sun 









Clock 



Day 



ol of 



JULY 13—19, 1876. 



Temperature near 





SetB. 





Sets. 





before 



ol 



Month! Week. 





London. 













Sun. 



Tear. 









Day. 



Night. 



Mean. 



h. m. 



h. m. 



h. m. i h. m. 



Days. 



m. s. 





13 



Th 



Hereford, Clifton, and Higbgate Shows. 



76.1 



51.4 



63.7 



4 



8 10 



10 45 i 11 20 



22 



5 29 



194 



14 

 15 



F 



8 



Queckett (Microscopical) Club at 8 p.m. 



74.5 

 76.6 



50.5 

 50.7 



62.5 

 63.7 



4 2 

 4 3 



8 10 

 8 9 



10 57 | 0a 38 



11 14 ! 2 1 



c 



24 



5 36 

 5 42 



195 

 196 



16 



StTN 





76.0 



50.1 



63.0 



4 4 



8 8 



11 37 j 3 29 



25 



5 47 



197 



17 



M 





74.3 



51.3 



62.8 



4 5 



8 7 



morn. . 4 58 



26 



5 53 



198 



18 



To 



Leek and Kilmarnock Rose Shows. 



74.7 



50.2 



62.5 



4 6 



8 5 



12 | 6 21 



27 



5 57 



199 



19 



W 



Boyal Horticultural Society's Second Summer Show. 



73.2 



49.9 



61.1 



4 8 



8 4 



1 5 • 7 27 



1 



28 



6 2 



200 



From observations taken near London during forty-three years 



the average day temperature 



of the week is 74.9 : ; and its night temperature 



50.6°. 











AURICULAS. 



N no account should your correspondent 

 " J. T. D. L." put his trust in chance-saved 

 seed for raising florist Auriculas. In the 

 first place, the quality would be dismally 

 obscure in comparison with that which may 

 be obtained from known and chosen parent- 

 age on both sides. Even the quantity would 

 be uncertain and small. The Auricula is 

 flowered in a quiet though free air. Bees 

 about it are an abomination, and every in- 

 sect trespasser is prosecuted with the utmost rigour, so 

 that the agencies of wind and winged insects in fertilisa- 

 tion are withheld from choice Auricula blooms. Seed is 

 therefore best and most abundantly obtained from studied 

 crossing, and the florist is very thankful for the rich 

 opportunities he has in plants so secured from intrusion. 



The pleasures of raising seedlings are manifold. The 

 crowning one, of course, is the final result ; but the 

 choice of parentage, the careful fertilisation itself, the 

 watching of the swelling pods, the harvest of the seed, 

 and the diverse growth of the young plants, are all 

 matters of deep interest. The more completely each 

 florist makes these operations the work of his own judg- 

 ment, hand, and eye, the more thoroughly will he under- 

 stand and value and enjoy the result. Herein, indeed, is 

 one's own experience the sweetest. Herein do even dis- 

 appointments " pay," for whatever you miss, you fail not 

 in great variety and beauty. 



In saving Auricula seed it is important to begin with 

 the flower when young enough. The stigma is not fit 

 for impregnation until it is viscid or slightly gummy. 

 By this natural provision the light pollen grains are 

 enabled to adhere to it. It soon, however, loses this dew 

 of its youth — soon, indeed, after the pollen of the anthers 

 is past its abundance. Before these anthers can burst 

 I remove them from a flower I wish to fertilise, and this 

 will be before it is well open. I watch the stigma, and 

 when it becomes fit I apply a well-dusted young anther 

 from a bloom of the variety I wish to cross with. I have 

 discarded the use of camel-hair pencils ; for pollen is a 

 very subtle substance, and in spite of care there is a 

 possibility of mixture by brush-work, whereas nothing is 

 so pure as a virgin anther. When the stigma is covered 

 with pollen it may be expected that the parentage of the 

 seed is tolerably safe, since the stigma has been pre- 

 occupied, and its powers pass away when its work is done. 

 I use a pair of very delicate nippers, fine enough to lay 

 hold of a single anther and to pass down the throat of 

 the flower to the low-lyiug pinhead or stigma within. 



It is no matter-of-course that crossing properly per- 

 formed is effective. The plants may refuse to bear seed, 

 something untoward occurring leading to a failure or 

 poor crop. Auricula seed is a breakdown with me 

 this year, although I took pains in every way. Spring 

 was a most vexatious and hurtful time, and no florist 

 could read any poetry about it with patience and with- 

 out feeling it all mere works of fiction, untrue to nature. 



No. 793.— Vol. XXXI., New Series. 



If your correspondent haB no other green edges than 

 those he has named his disappointment among them is 

 attributable to his apparent lack of the best varieties, which 

 are so difficult to meet with. Prince of Wales is the 

 best he mentionf, and it is often awkwardly crumpled. 

 When he can cbtain Freedom, Champion, Col. Taylor, 

 Prince of Greens, and Anna his eyes will be gladdened 

 with beauties that do not often disappoint. As to Lan- 

 caster Hero coming green-edged, he should rejoice when 

 it does so, and he will grow accustomed to see it bloom 

 in that choice character from a truss that is formed be- 

 fore the spring growth ; but the variety is normally a 

 grey edge, and one of our most dashing ones. 



I should say he might fairly hope to succeed with 

 the Auricula in rural Wales. Some growers would very 

 gladly exchange their difficulties for his, and take a pure 

 though rainy climate in return for their dingy, dewless, 

 poisoned town atmosphere. The Auricula rejoices in 

 fresh upland air and clear breezes from the moors. But 

 the damp that is fatal to it is not the moisture of a 

 plentiful rainfall, from which it can be protected ; " the 

 enemy " is the unnatural dampness and stagnation of 

 ill-ventilated frames, and the sour marshiness of an ill- 

 drained soil. — F. D. Hoenee, Kirhby Malzeard, Bijpon. 



PEACH BLISTER. 



When the expanding foliage of the Peach is exposed to 

 the influence of frost or cold cutting winds it becomes 

 blistered — not shrivelled — pretty much iu proportion to 

 the cold or exposure to which it is subjected ; the affected 

 part changing from its normal colour to a pale green hue, 

 thickens and swells, becoming larger with the growth of 

 the leaf, the outer surface often becoming very rugged 

 and irregular, and upon this a delicate mould or fungus 

 makes its appearance in due course, but not till the 

 blister has been established for some time. This is what 

 close observation extending over many years has' taught 

 me. Let those who say that fungus is the cause of this 

 blister explain the process, and prove to demonstration if 

 they can how and why it does so, and in doing so let me 

 ask them to keep to Peach blister alone and not wander 

 off to other forms of disease ; in a word, let them give us 

 facts and not fancies. 



Mr. Smith evidently confounds blister with curl caused 

 by the attacks of aphides upon the under surface of Peach 

 leaves causing a contraction of the tissue : hence the curl. 

 I am aware that this curl affects other trees in precisely 

 the Barne manner and from the same cause ; but let us 

 confine ourselves to the Peach leaves. If an argument is 

 sound it needs no foreign support. Curl is often present 

 in the foliage of Peach trees growing under glass, but 

 blister is never found in a well-managed house. Mark * 

 I say "well-managed" advisedly, because a little mis- 

 management of the ventilators during the prevalence of 

 a cold wind induces blister to appear even with " great 

 virulence." Many examples might be quoted, but one 

 will suffice. I was once asked to examine a rather bad 

 case of blister under glass, and found that all along the 

 house immediately under the ventilators the foliage was 



No. 1450.— Vol.. LVL, Old Series. 



