CULTURE OF TTIE AURICULA. 
11 
a 
Place the pans on an eastern or south-eastern aspect ; and shelter them from 
heavy rains, and water lightly as often as they require it. 
10. Transplant seedlings as soon as their seed-leaves become pretty strong. 
Take each up with a small pair of tweezers made of ivory, with very narrow points, 
so as to raise each by the seed-leaf, and the other end somewhat fiat, to loosen 
them previous to raising (a). And like- 
wise a piece of ivory, not more than one- 
eighth of an inch broad (/;), to make a 
small cleft in the soil, to admit the roots 
of the plant. Transplant as often as the 
plants require it, placing them in the first 
instance one inch asunder, and increasing the distance every time, until they are 
large enough to place in the pots used for flowering. 
11. Always pot the plants immediately after the flowering season, that is, about 
the end of May, or beginning of June, except such as are to produce seed, which 
must not be potted until the seed is gathered. The proper sized pot for a good 
flowering plant is ten inches deep, and eight inches wide, at top (inside measure). 
Good drainage of broken pot is indispensable. 
12. In potting never shake off all the soil from the roots, unless the roots be de- 
cayed. In taking off the decayed parts, never use a knife to cut them, but always 
break them off with the hand, for a plant rarely thrives after being so cut. 
13. Remove all the large offsets from the plants, some time in March, because 
they grow the quickest in the spring. 
14. Great care is indispensable to secure auriculas from the attack of slugs, par- 
ticularly in April and May ; also it often happens that small caterpillars are secreted 
in the hearts of the plants ; this may be known by the appearance of webs. These 
depredators must be destroyed, or all cultivation will be useless. 
15. All plants, to be healthy, must be kept free from weeds and dead leaves. The 
former occasion disease, by depriving the plants of nourishment ; and the latter, by 
infection. Great care is requisite never to strip off a leaf, until it is thoroughly 
dead ; for by doing so, a wound is made, which will absorb more water than the 
plant is able to evaporate. This causes a decay to commence in the wounded part, 
which soon spreads throughout the whole plant. Whenever this decay is perceived, 
scratch out the rotted part with the finger, and fill up the place with a little tallow, 
to keep out the moisture, until the wound heals. 
If the flowers when expanded do not lie flat and even, florists use an instrument 
called a Jiattener , made of ivory : this instrument, if 
the flower is cupped, is pressed upon the pip until the 
petals become quite flat. If, on the contrary, the petals 
bend backward, the flattener is placed under the pip, betwixt the calyx and the 
corolla, drawing it through the opening, in the eye of the flattener ; then each petal 
is properly straightened by a camel hair pencil. 
Many experienced florists place the flowers in perfect darkness for two or three 
days previous to their being shown, and usually in a cellar, fixing the cut flowers in 
