198 
THK AURICULA. 
choose those which are beginning a fresh 
growth by the side of the stem, and are firm 
in the. pot ; if before bloom, select those with 
the largest heart — but there are some houses 
that you may write your order to, and make 
sure of receiving the best plants they have at 
the time. It has been the custom among 
those growers who use very exciting compost, 
to repot their plants every year, shaking out 
the mould from the fibres and shortening 
them, and also cutting off the bottom part of 
the tap or centre of the root, which, in nine 
cases out of ten, would be found decayed or 
rotting. And it is certain, that if any part of 
the root be specked or decayed, and it be left 
so, it will progress until it carries off the plant. 
We do not hold with doing this violence to 
any plant above once in two years, for the 
check is much greater than is desirable, and 
must affect its general strength, although if 
done early it soon makes new roots. We do 
not dispute that it has been done with great 
success by many excellent growers, but there 
have been many points of practice carried on 
from father to son until they have been fairly 
woven into the ordinary management, and no 
one has questioned why it was so. The 
annual potting of the Auricula, and the trying 
operation of shaking out all the soil from the 
roots, may have been highly necessary under 
the old method of growing them in exciting 
compost, because there is no doubt the decay 
of the lower part of the root was almost a 
natural result, and unless that were removed 
destruction was inevitable ; now, however, 
that they are found to do well in wholesome 
loam, dung, and vegetable mould, and to be 
not subject to those attacks, a plant may be 
raised from an offset, in a small sixty-sized 
pot, removed when full of roots for a larger, 
bloomed by shifting to a forty-eight size, and 
changed to a thirty-two, or even a twenty-four, 
without once shaking out, and bloomed in the 
last sized pot stronger and better than in the 
smaller ones. People are not so fond of the 
violent treatment to which the older growers 
subjected these beautiful subjects. In potting 
the Auricula, one of the first considerations is 
the drainage -; it is necessary to turn the pot 
bottom upwards, and to knock the hole from 
the outside so as to chip off a piece inwardly, 
this makes a clear descent for the water, 
which in most pots would lodge, for the edge 
of the hole generally stands up rather higher 
than the bottom itself. The chipping will be 
found very easily accomplished, even by hit- 
ting the sharp edge of the bottom of one pot 
on the hole of the other : they chip very 
readily, and it is a necessary operation, for if 
the water can lodge at the bottom of the pot, 
there is danger of the plant. This being done, 
the next consideration is the material through 
which the water is to percolate as it leaves 
the mould. In all small pots used for offsets 
or seedlings we use moss ; it takes less room 
than a sufficient number of broken potsherds 
or crocks would, and room is an object in the 
small pots ; in the larger ones there should be 
placed one piece of broken pot, large enough 
to cover the hole, and a number cf smaller 
ones to fill the bottom of the pot up nearly 
one-third of the height, this secures a drain- 
age which nothing else will, with equal firm- 
ness. Moss, in any large quantity, would 
settle down in time, and disturb the plant 
from its proper height ; and cinders or clink- 
ers cannot be so free from impurities, as 
broken pieces of the same kind of pots as 
they are growing in ; in general one-third of 
the entire height of the contents of the pot 
should be these crocks, and the compost 
should, when the plants are fresh potted, be 
filled to within a very short distance of the 
edge of the pot, for when watered it settles 
down. Supposing the plants to be bought 
in at the close of the bloom, it would be, upon 
the whole, the best treatment to shake out all 
the soil from the roots, and to examine them, 
because you cannot possibly calculate on the 
state of the roots by the appearance of the 
plants at the time. The root, that is, the cen- 
tre lump of it, should not be more than an 
inch or an inch and a half long, but if it is 
much longer, cut off all above an inch and 
a half from the collar or place where the lower 
leaves join ; the removal of this extra length 
also removes all the fibres on it. You must 
likewise be careful to remove every morsel of 
canker or rot, even if you are obliged to 
remove ever}' atom of root, and let the plant 
make fresh ; but if any are attacked very bad, 
you had better return them to the party you 
purchased of. It is, at all events, quite requi- 
site to cut away every speck if you keep 
them. In potting them, you partly fill the 
pot with the compost we have mentioned, by 
heaping it in the form of a cone in the centre, 
nearly up to the top, then introduce the plant 
with the large portion or centre of the root 
on the cone, and gently press it to its place, 
which should be, with the collar of the plant, 
where the bottom leaves come out, even with 
the top edge of the pot ; the fibrous roots 
should be spread all round, and the earth filled 
on them gently, pressed with the fingers so 
as to close the soil about the fibres, and 
when the earth is filled up to the top edge of 
the pot, it may be pressed down on the face 
of it, so as to lower the plant itself a trifle 
below the top edge, and two or three gentle 
knocks on the potting table will settle all the 
compost a little below the top, but very tri- 
fling indeed, because watering will settle it a 
little more. You will then know that all your 
