THE AURICULA. 
57 
been the least alteration in the size or form of the flowers. The 
same plant was exhibited at the Auricula and Primula Conference 
in 1886, There is also a peculiar form of the wild Auricula exhi- 
bited in a box of Primulas and Auriculas arranged for effect in 
Class W. The flowers are striped with red on a yellow ground 
and it is curious to notice that one truss has produced flowers of 
the normal form and colour, pure yellow. Varieties of the Auricula 
proper have also been produced from seed with double flowers. 
I exhibited one at the last Conference held by the Society, but 
it was considered to be the ugliest flower in the entire exhibition, 
and I did not continue to cultivate it. 
I may be permitted at this point to draw more particular 
attention to the cause of the production of those Fancy Auriculas 
to which I have already briefly alluded. They are, of course, 
seminal variations from the edged flowers. Now a young Auricula- 
grower wishing to obtain plants from seed is tempted to purchase 
a packet saved from edged flowers of the green, grey, or white 
edged varieties, and he naturally expects the same class of 
flowers to be produced, but he will be woefully disappointed ; 
half of them may be selfs so rough in character that they are 
hurried off to the rubbish heap as quickly as possible, 
others may be of the fancy type, and a few may be like the 
parents. These fancy varieties are, I believe, nothing more nor less 
than reversions or semi-reversions to the wild type, as they in 
many instances more nearly resemble the wild flower of the 
Alps than they do the garden Auricula. Even if the greatest 
care is taken to fertilise the flowers, and only the very best 
sorts are used for seed and pollen bearers, the cultivator may 
consider himself lucky if he obtains one really good Show 
Auricula in every hundred seedlings he raises. I am showing 
some green, grey, and white edged seedhngs to-day of only 
moderate merit, but they are all from the very best crosses. 
The green-edged seedlings, for example, have been obtained by 
fertihsing the flowers of the variety Francis D. Horner with the 
pollen of Abbe Liszt, and amongst these seedlings were 
numerous dark selfs with such badly formed flowers that I was 
glad to get them at once out of sight and buried in the rubbish 
heap. One naturally asks, Y\hy this marked tendency to pro- 
duce purple selfs, and selfs of such inferior quality ? My idea 
is that these inferior selfs are also reversions. But here we must 
