THE AURICULA. 
55 
THE AURICULA. 
By Mr. James Douglas, F.R.H.S. 
It is very difficult to say anything new about the Auricula, or in 
any way to add to the information placed before the Society at 
the Conference held on April 20 and 21, 1886. The full report 
of the Primula Conference of that year is given in Vol. VII., 
Part 2, of the Society's Journal.* The introductory paper by 
the late Mr. Shirley Hibberd is a very able one on the " Origin of 
the Florist's Auricula." But it will be remembered that in that 
paper Mr. Hibberd stated that the Alpine Auricula {Primula 
pubescens) and the Show Auricula (Primula A^tricula) would 
not cross. This has been shown to be an error. The two 
distinct specific forms can be crossed, as I have since proved. 
There is nothing gained, however, by crossing the two classes of 
Auriculas, the resulting plant being far inferior in beauty to 
those of either the Show^or Alpine sections. 
As a garden flower the Auricula has been grown and esteemed 
in England since the later years of the sixteenth century, but 
not until the present century has the plant been divided into 
sections. Up to the end of the eighteenth century the Show 
Auricula produced parti-coloured flowers without any well- 
defined edge or ground colour : they were splashed through with 
stripes of green and yellow from edge to centre, but in the early 
years of the present century the florists gradually obtained a 
well-defined edge, white or grey, while self-edged flowers were 
then always predominant. 
The history of the Auricula is interesting, but it has been 
told more than once, and never better than by Mr. Hibberd in 
the paper alluded to. At the present time the flowers have 
taken on well-defined edges of green, grey, white, and self colour. 
1. The green-edged Auricula has a well-defined margin of 
green on the upper surface of the comparatively flat corolla ; inside 
of this margin of green it has a band of black, blackish maroon, or 
rarely of reddish colour. The centre is white, caused by a very 
dense coating of white powder (farina), whilst the eye of the 
flower is yellow, or ought to be yellow, and the stigma should 
* See Advertisement in this issue. 
