406 



THE GAKDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



also should be exposed, by removing the top 

 lights, to frequent gentle showers: nothing is 

 so invigorating. They must now also be top- 

 dressed with a compost of two parts cow- 

 manure and one part loam, having previously 

 removed the old soil to about the depth of an 

 inch. At the beginning of April, when they 

 have pushed up their flower-stems, they must 

 not longer be exposed to showers of rain, but 

 the soil must, to the end of the blooming sea- 

 son, be preserved in a moist state. As the 

 pips, if frosted when about to expand, will 

 never bloom flat, the frame must be carefully 

 protected, as just described, every night. In 

 watering the plants great care must be taken 

 to avoid the foliage; and if a drop has acciden- 

 tally fallen into the crown of the plant it must 

 be extracted by means of a camel-hair pencil, or 

 decay will probably be induced. A small 

 watering-pot, with a spout 1J foot long, bent at 

 the end, and then contracted to the diameter of 

 a goose-quill, should always be used for the 

 purpose of watering. 



" When the pips are just expanding into 

 bloom, the frame, which has hitherto been ex- 

 posed to a southern aspect, should be removed 

 into the shade; or, what is more feasible, the 

 plants may be placed under hand-glasses in a 

 calm and shaded part of the garden, air being 

 admitted at the bottom. The best plan, how- 

 ever, is to remove the plants into a common 

 garden frame, placed in a shaded part of the 

 garden, with the benefit of two hours' morning 

 sun. The pots are not placed on the ground, 

 but on shelves, graduated according to the fall 

 of the glass lights. Slide-doors are made in the 

 front and back of the frame, by which means 

 any quantity of air can be admitted freely, to 

 circulate around the bottom, sides, &c, of the 

 pots and plants; it is most injurious to admit 

 air in the common way, by tilting up the glass 

 lights, as the cold air is thus suffered to blow 

 directly upon the expanding blooms; hence the 

 very great advantage of the contrivance just 

 described. As the pips expand, the smallest, 

 least perfect, and overcrowded ones must be 

 carefully thinned out, leaving a truss of five, 

 seven, or nine. When in full bloom the plants 

 may be removed to any other situation the 

 grower may fancy, as to a cool, airy green- 

 house, where their beauties can be more con- 

 veniently seen and examined." 



From May until January the flowering plants 

 should be under a north wall. About the end 

 of January they should be put into a slightly- 

 heated house, so that they may develop their 



flower trusses. If kept in frames, they must 

 be covered with mats at night and uncovered 

 again in the morning. 



The Auricula is often infested with green-fly. 

 This can be destroyed by tobacco fumigation or 

 removed with a soft hair-brush dipped in tobacco- 

 powder. The woolly aphis (Trama auricula?) 

 also attacks the Auricula, and is not easily de- 

 stroyed. Tobacco-powder will kill those insects 

 that cluster about the neck of the plants above- 

 ground, whilst those on the stem underground 

 must be removed when the plants are repotted. 

 This insect is easily recognized by its white 

 woolly appearance and its skin. 



Auricula fanciers who grow for exhibition 

 will find that the plants require very careful 

 handling to get them on the exhibition table in 

 good form. Only one truss should be allowed 

 on each plant, and this should be supported 

 with a neat stick. When they have to be 

 carried long distances by rail, the plants are 

 turned out of their pots, and the ball of earth 

 and roots wrapped tightly round with a piece 



; of calico or any thin cloth. In this way a man 

 can easily convey fifty or sixty plants to the 

 place of exhibition in a light box. Flower-pots 



j and green moss are provided at the place of 



| exhibition. 



Alpine Auriculas, when grown in pots, are 

 treated very much the same as the show section. 



| As hardy plants for the rock garden they are 



I most useful, and they are effective in the flower 

 border, standing the winter out-of-doors in a 



! well-drained loamy soil. Plants established in 

 the rock garden for ten or fifteen years, receiv- 

 ing no other attention than a dressing of rich 

 soil every spring, have produced upwards of 

 a hundred trusses at once. 



Show Auriculas are also quite hardy, but as 

 their flowers, and sometimes the leaves also, 

 are thickly coated with farina, a shower of rain 

 is apt to disfigure them. 



Selection of varieties in each section: — 



Show Auriculas. 



Green-edged. — Abbe Lizst, Colonel Taylor, Dr. Hardy, 

 James Hannaford, Lycurgus, Prince of Greens, Rev. F. D. 

 Horner, Talisman. 



Gray-edged. — Alexander Meiklejohn, Colonel Champ- 

 neys, Dr. Horner, Frank Simonite, George Lightbody, 

 John Waterston, George Rudd, Lancashire Hero, Mabel, 

 Maria, Marmion, Mrs. Moore, Rachael, Ringleader, Robert 

 Trail, Silvia, William Brockbank. 



White-edged. — Acme, Ann Smith, Beauty, Conservative, 

 Dr. Kidd, Earl Grosvenor, Glory, Heatherbell, John 

 Simonite. Lady Sophie Dumaresque, Magpie, Miss Prim, 

 Miss Woodhead, Mrs. Dodwell, Reliance, Smiling Beauty, 

 Snowdon's Knight. 



