CHARACTERISTICS OF AURICULAS. 



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delightfully sudden death for them. If a plant has its central young leaves drawn 

 together by a faint greyish web, this is the work of a small dark maggot, which, if left 

 alone, will bore down and eat out the entire heart of the plant. It must be carefully 

 hunted for and drawn out. Eed spider is only possible through culpable neglect of 

 ventilation, shade, and moisture. 



Description and Properties. 



In the classical Auricula, there are four typical divisions or classes, founded on the 

 characteristic differences of the " edge," or outermost zone of colour on the disc of the 

 corolla. This ring of colour is either a bright clear green, or the green is "frosted" 

 over with a light deposit of white meal, or completely hidden as under a snowfall. 

 This outermost ring is called "the edge," and determines the class of a variety, which 

 is a " green edge," " grey edge," or "white edge," according to the absence or depth of 

 the meal upon it. The remaining class consists of varieties on which the green or mealy 

 edge is totally absent. Its space is taken by a continuation of what is called the "body 

 colour," and the flower is called "Self-edged," and briefly "a Self." 



There are four concentric circles on the disc of the flower. The centre one is the 

 outline of the tube or throat, which should be of a rich yellow, circular, of good 

 substance, and rising well to the level of the expanded corolla. The mouth of the tube 

 should be furnished with bold anthers set on short stamens round it, while the pistil, 

 with its stigma, must on no account whatever appear on a level with or above the 

 stamens. If it does, the flower is " pin-eyed," and hopelessly disqualified for classical 

 honours. This rule may seem hard-and-fast, but it secures to us much the prettier, 

 gentler, and more expressive variations in the eye of the flower. 



Next in order, on the face of the "pip " is laid a circle of snowy farina or meal, 

 technically called " the paste." This must be smooth, dense, circular, free from all 

 cracks and blemishes, and not cut into by the segments of the petals. 



Beyond the circle of the paste lies a zone known as the "body" or "ground" 

 colour, sharp cut and circular on its inner edge, but picturesquely ending in sharp 

 flashes towards the circumference. The body colour in edged flowers is generally pure 

 black, and its texture very velvety, a superb contrast to the snowy paste and the 

 emerald-green edge. This lies outside of all, and is a leading loveliness, and the body 

 colour should not break through it. 



Paste and tube are constant- standing features in all the classes, but the "Self" 



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