GARDEN AURICULA. 121 



when brought into the sheltered parterre, it be- 

 comes too dehcate and too much valued to be 

 consigned to the bosom of its mother earth. 

 The breath and beams of heaven must not " visit 

 its face too roughly;" requiring defence as well 

 from the summer heat as from the winter's cold. 



It is a vernal flowering plant ; but, unlike 

 bulbs and some other tubers, it is not a sleeper. 

 In the whole art of floriculture there is nothing 

 more difficult than to grow the auricula plant 

 to a great and vigorous size, and yet retard its 

 showing flower till the proper season. This is 

 a point requiring particular consideration; and, 

 luckily, the practical experience of eminent florists 

 is on record, which, with some additional obser- 

 vations, will show the most approved means to 

 gain this desirable result. 



The root of the auricula is a long, irregular, 

 branching tuber, furnished by fibrous permanent 

 radicles, very much in the style of the iris family. 

 It is increased by gradual elongation upwards, 

 and as gradually dying off at the bottom. Hence 

 it is the nature of the plant to rise out of the 



