PRIMULA CONFERENCE. 



193 



A direct bint as to what to avoid as well as what to attempt 

 may be derived from the reference to the Auricula in Beckmann's 

 " History of Inventions." He quotes from Weisnrantel's " Des Blu- 

 misten " to the effect that Ovid, Pliny, and Columella knew the 

 flower. Well, those writers were also acquainted with garlic, 

 barley, and figs ; but we pay no attention to them until they 

 offer some special information illustrative of the arts, customs, 

 or necessities of the times in which they lived. It is somewhat 

 to the purpose, perhaps, that Pluche, in " Spectacle de la Nature" 

 (ii. 49), states that the Auricula was carried from Switzerland to 

 Brussels by Walloon merchants. The second volume of this 

 work was published in 1733, and it gives no clue to the date of 

 the carrying. But the statement is of importance in connection 

 with the general belief that the Auricula was cultivated in the 

 Netherlands long before it was introduced into this country ; 

 and that the garden varieties of the flower were introduced by 

 refugees from the Low Countries about the year 1570. We find 

 mention of the flower in the works of Fuchsius, Matthiolus, 

 Clusius, Turner, and Dodoens. But the sixteenth century 

 botanists were but little better informed on the subject than the 

 writers of the later Boman period ; and it would be waste of 

 time to attempt to formulate their scraps of information. 

 Matthiolus figures the true Auricula admirably at page 706 of " De 

 Plantis Epitome " (1586). In the superb edition of Dodoens, 

 printed at Antwerp by Plantin, it is very badly figured at page 

 148. By both it is described as Auricula ursi, and by this name 

 of bear's ears it was generally known amongst the sixteenth- 

 century botanists and gardeners. But the " Florists' Auricula " 

 was by them unknown, for it came into existence after their 

 time. 



In the year 1570 many artizans, driven out from the Nether- 

 lands, settled in this country, and they brought their favourite 

 flowers with them, including the best of their Auriculas. We 

 begin business at the old shop, for Gerarde, who published his 

 " Herbal" in 1597, described and figured half-a-dozen varieties. 

 On page 640 the contrast between the yellow and the purple beares 

 ears, although shown in drawings that are truly execrable, is 

 full of instruction in respect of the question before us. The 

 other figures are of little consequence, but the two that lead the 

 way speak emphatically of the distinction between the true 



