THE FLORAL MAGAZINE. 



recommend all sorts of mutilations, and laugh at those 

 who think pruning injurious, if not useless. At the 

 recent Pomological Congress at Ghent did not the 

 members laugh at one of the speakers who, at the 

 close of a rather long discussion as to the best mode of 

 pruning, recommended his hearers not to prune at all, 

 and to plant standard trees ? Many people are now of 

 the same opinion. 



THE ORIGIN OF THE AURICULA. 



In a most interesting pamphlet, entitled " Die Ges- 

 chicbte der Aurikel," reprinted from the " Proceedings 

 of the Deutscher "and Osterreichischer Alpenverein," 

 says A. W. B. in the Gardener's Chronicle for December 

 25th last, Professor Kerner, of Innsbruck, recently 

 appointed to succeed the veteran Fenzl at Vienna, 

 gives a full and detailed account of the introduction of 

 this favourite flower into the gardens of Europe. 



Towards the close of the sixteenth century the 

 wonderful beauty of the alpine flora appears first to 

 have attracted the attention of plant-growers in the 

 West of Europe. Even at that time many of the most 

 striking of these — Primula Clusiana, P. Auricula, P. 

 iarinosa, Anemone Hepatica, Adonis vernalis, Cypri- 

 pediuni Calceolus, Daphne Cneorum, and others — were 

 freely sold in the market at Vienna, and were 

 cultivated in the gardens of that and other neighbouring 

 towns. The summits, precipices, and ravines were also 

 then visited by foreign botanists, who for the first time 

 investigated the alpine flora, especially Pona of Verona, 

 Kamerer (Camerarius of Nurnberg), but especially by 

 the great Belgian botanist De l'Escluse (Clusius), who 

 lived for some years (1573 to 1587) at Vienna, and 

 during that time scaled many of the alpine peaks of 

 Carinthia, Styria, and the Tyrol, in search of floral 

 treasures, which he transferred to his garden in the 

 Austrian capital. 



For the genus Primula Clusius had a special 

 affection. The three English lowland species, P. veris, P. 

 vulgaris, and P. elatior, were then commonly cultivated 

 in gardens, as well as the hybrid Polyanthus under the 

 name of Primula anglica ; and he endeavoured 

 to naturalise in his garden a considerable number of 

 the alpine species, especially P. Auricula and P. 

 glutinosa. To the whole of these species so introduced 

 lie gave the name " Auricula Ursi," from a supposed 

 resemblance in the shape of the leaves to that of the 

 ear of a bear, a name subsequently corrupted into the 

 local designation "Sanikel," q distinguishing each of 

 the varieties or species by separate numbers. Of all 

 these transplanted species, Clusius finally succeeded in 

 naturalising only two — the Auricula Ursi L, or Primula 

 Auricula, Linn., and the Auricula Ursi II., or Primula 

 pubescens, Jacq., roots of which he transmitted to his 

 friend Van der Dilft, in Belgium, whence they spread 

 over Germany, and were known in Strasburg in 1595 ; 

 and by the middle of the following century had come 

 into general cultivation throughout continental Europe 

 and England. Of these two Auriculas, however, the 

 P. Auricula, Linn., being a true species, showed but 



little tendency to variation, was comparatively 

 neglected, and in time died almost entirely out of 

 cultivation ; while P. pubescens, Jacq., which is shown 

 by Kerner to be a natural hybrid between P. Auricula 

 and P. hirsuta, All., gave birth to a great series of 

 varieties — the English, or farinose, and the Dutch 

 strains being especially distinct — and by the close of 

 the seventeenth century had become one of the most 

 valued of all cultivated plants. The name of Auricula 

 did not originate with Clusius, but is used by 

 Matthioli in 1555, and even by earlier writers. 



The history of Primula pubescens, Jacq., the 

 ancestor of our garden Auriculas, is then investigated. 

 In his Hist or ia Plantar um, published in 1601, Clusius 

 states that he has in vain sought for his Auricula Ursi 

 II. on the Austrian and Syrian Alps, and that he first 

 saw it in the garden of his friend, Professor Aichholtz, 

 at Vienna ; but subsequently records his delight at 

 gathering it in the neighbourhood of Innsbruck. For 

 two centuries after this it was sought for in vain by 

 many botanists in its native habitat. Between 1774 

 and 1791 it was again found in the Tyrol by Wulfen, 

 but only in the gardens of peasants, who asserted that 

 they obtained it from the neighbouring mountains. 

 Wulfen forwarded the plant to Jacquin, who described 

 it in his Miscellanies, 1, 158, t. 18, as a species, under 

 the name Primula pubescens, which it has since 

 retained. In la67 Professor Kerner himself re-dis- 

 covered the P. pubescens apparently in its original 

 habitat, near Innsbruck, in a chasm known as the 

 Hematkehl, near the village of Gschnitz. There occur 

 in this neighbourhood alternations of dolomitic lime- 

 stone and slate, and consequently of the two parent 

 species of the hybrid, P. Auricula and hirsuta, which 

 are partial to these two different geological formations. 

 Other habitats of a precisely similar character were 

 afterwards discovered. 



This then appears to be the history of the cultivated 

 Auricula, which is stated in conclusion by Professor 

 Kerner to be, as far as he knows, the only alpine plant 

 which has in the course of time come into general 

 cultivation in the gardens of the rest of Europe. 



CATALOGUE RECEIVED. 



Sutton and Sons' Amateurs Guide and Spring Catalogue 

 for 1876. 



This well-printed and tastefully got-up catalogue 

 deserves more than a mere acknowledgment. The 

 kitchen garden is not within our particular sphere. 

 In the Floral Department we have short but very 

 precise and practical directions for the cultivation 

 of the favourite annuals. In the very complete 

 list which follows, instead of a mere string of dry 

 names, unintelligible except to the initiated, we have a 

 brief description of the plant, its duration, height, 

 colour, &c, and in addition a series of excellent wood- 

 cuts ; so that we can form a very correct idea of the 

 plants themselves, and thus select what is best 

 adapted to our purpose, instead of ordering at random, 

 as we have had too often to do. We cordially recom- 

 mend this Guide to every Amateur. 



DSI 



