THE AURICULA. 
107 
mould in the compost, that we should put one- 
eighth, or at most one part of cow-dung and 
one part of sand to six parts of the loam, and 
in this soil we should be content to grow the 
finest collection. The pasture from which the 
turf should be cut, should be what is called 
rich meadow, not laying too low, so as to be 
under water at any period, because that might 
entirely alter the character of the loam, or 
earth itself, by periodical deposits of foreign 
matter — whatever might wash from the neigh- 
bouring soil, and thus some inches of the soil 
might be any thing but loam. From these 
remarks, our readers may gather that we 
entirely repudiate all the nostrums so strongly 
recommended by Emmerton and others, and 
trust altogether to the simple material of 
friable clean loam, vegetable mould, and the 
mould from cow or horse droppings, gathered 
from pastures and rotted ; and without dis- 
puting that the mould from decayed willow, or 
other light wood, free from resin or gummy 
sap, may be as good vegetable mould as any 
from rotted leaves, we should, nevertheless, 
use that which we know to be good, in prefer- 
ence to any so liable to be impure from the 
immense time it takes to rot, and the almost 
certainty of its acquiring foreign substances 
in its progress to decay. We now come to the 
treatment of the plants, which must be got 
from some person who grows them in a healthy 
state ; select your sorts according to your 
wants, commencing, however, with those con- 
sidered best for exhibition, and possessing the 
best properties. We recommend the following 
to begin with, although from the description 
we shall give it will be seen they are at 
present far from all that can be desired. 
Green-Edged. — Dickson's Matilda, Page's 
Cliampion, Lee's Col. Taylor, Booth's Free- 
dom, Pollett's Highland Boy, Stretche's Em- 
peror Alexander, Smith's Waterloo, Hudson's 
Apollo, Dickson's Earl of Errol, Dickson's 
Duke of AVollington, Dickson's Prince Albert, 
and Lightbody's Lord Lynedoch. 
Grey-Edged.— Fletcher's Ne Plus Ultra, 
Waterhouse's Conqueror of Europe, Dick- 
sou's Unique, Oliver's Lovely Anne, Kenyon's 
Ringleader, Sykes's Complete, Hedge's Bri- 
tannia, Grimes's Privateer, Maclean's Unique, 
Fletcher's Mary Anne, Dickson's Duke of 
Sussex. 
White-Edged. — Taylor's Glory, Tay- 
lor's Incomparable, Popplewell's Conqueror, 
Thorpe's Magpie. 
Selps. — Redman's Metropolitan, Nether- 
wood's Othello, Dickson's Apollo, and Bury's 
Lord Primate. 
You must now be provided with a frame 
and light, like a common cucumber frame. 
and make a stone or brick, cemented, or 
naphnlte bottom or floor, on which to place it. 
Let this be so constructed that all superfluous 
water will run off out of the frame, and leave 
it dry at bottom after every watering, or 
after rain. Much depends on the time of year 
at which the plants are purchased or procured ; 
but they must be at once treated according to 
the rules laid down in the annexed calendar 
for the month in which they are purchased. 
But the frame has to hold them eight or nine 
months out of the twelve, if not the whole time 
except while in bloom, during which period 
they are generally placed on a sort of stage 
for showing them off to the best advantage, or 
kept under shaded hand-glasses for prolong- 
ing the flowers through all the exhibitions. We 
recommend them to be purchased while in 
bloom, or immediately afterwards, if they 
cannot be had in January or February, be- 
cause you can see the strength of the plant at 
those periods better than at an)' other ; for, 
before blooming, they can be chosen by their 
strength, as indicated by their firmness in the 
pot, and their cabbage-like appearance in the 
heart : and while the bloom is on them, or the 
remains of it, there can be no mistake, for 
the plant will have begun its fresh growth, if 
it be strong, and there will be no difficulty in 
the selection. But we must not from this 
infer that a respectable grower would give 
plants that will not do justice ; and it is the 
safest mode of purchasing, after all, to buy at 
a respectable florist's garden, if you pay 
twenty per cent, more for the security which 
it affords to an inexperienced buyer. It would 
be invidious here to mention names, because 
there are more respectable dealers than we 
could conveniently mention, and to leave any 
out would be doing an injustice. As a general 
hint we would say, avoid extraordinary cheap- 
ness as indicated by advertisements or cata- 
logues, because there is more than fifty per 
cent, difference between strong and weak 
plants ; and show-flowers must not be con- 
sidered like new exotic plants, which are 
always let out as soon as they have fairly 
rooted; indeed it is an old saying, that a root 
and two leaves is a plant. All florists' flowers 
are sold in strong blooming specimens, as well 
as mere offsets that will throw a flower ; and 
it is the same with tulips, polyanthuses, and 
many other subjects. The merely giving a 
flower, is enough to justify the sale of even 
weak things, by catalogue, at a price ; but a 
strong blooming plant is worth two such 
miserable apologies. It is hardly the same 
with pinks, carnations, picotees, and subjects 
that bloom at one season as well as they bloom 
at all, because there can be no fairly rooted 
plant that is not capable of being flowered in 
perfection, and, therefore, a well rooted plant 
of cither is a fair saleable subject. If t lie 
plants are purchased just past their bloom, 
