THE AURICULA. 
199 
plants are sound and clean, and that they have 
clean wholesome stuff to grow in. They 
ought now to be placed in their frame, watered 
gently with a very fine rose and soft water, 
and shut up for two or three days shaded 
from the sun ; they may then have air and 
even mild showers of rain, but they must not 
have the heat of the sun for some time, indeed 
they ought not at any time, though we do 
occasionally take less care about this with 
established plants than with any newly potted. 
If these plants were your own instead of be- 
ing fresh purchased, we should not recommend 
potting so soon after flowering ; but when 
uncertain, as in the case of purchasing new 
plants, the sooner you do it the better, because 
the examination and shaking out the soil from 
the roots generally checks them. The further 
management of these newly-potted plants is 
distinct from that of the others ; it chiefly con- 
sists in their being less able to bear wind, 
sun, and heavy rains, than plants established 
in their pots, and, consequently, they must 
not be so much exposed. When the plants are 
potted at their proper season, all the offsets 
are to be taken off, and those which have 
roots should be placed in small pots ; those 
which have not, should be put round the edge 
of a larger one, to strike roots;, and if they are 
at all doubtful, the pot should be plunged 
inside a larger one, so that a bell-glass might 
be put on, to go outside the small one, and 
within the edge of the large one, so as to 
press down the edge into the soil and exclude 
the air, which promotes the striking of the 
roots : planting them round the edges, so as to 
touch the sides of a pot, also causes them to 
strike sooner : when these are well rooted they 
should be potted in sixty-sized pots, and be 
protected in the frames until well established. 
With regard to the proper time of repottiug 
the general stock of plants, you must be 
guided by circumstances. A month after 
blooming, examine them by turning out the 
balls of earth. Those which, on examination, 
appear tn have filled their pots with roots, 
must be shifted into pots a size larger ; on the 
other hand, those which have not filled their 
pots with root may be allowed to grow still ; 
but the general shifting time should be July, or 
August at latest. Here, however, we have a 
great diversity of opinion among the old 
growers : Emmerton says, " From the 29th of 
May to the 12th of June I have transplanted 
ivith success;" but he admits that he has dune 
it as late as the 13th of July also, successfully. 
Maddock recommends immediately after the 
bloom for repotting ; and he considers, that if 
it he postponed till autumn, they have not 
time to recover their strength before spring. 
There is, however, an insuperable objection to 
repotting directly after bloom, li' they are 
set growing, they are almost sure to throw up 
their blooms in autumn instead of the proper 
season ; and if they are not set growing they 
take still more harm from the check they 
receive at a critical period, namely, just as 
they start for growing after their bloom. July 
and August are the best months, according to 
our practice, save and except where it is mani- 
fest that the plant has filled the pots with roots, 
and therefore must be losing ground by a con- 
tinuance of its confinement. The repotting of 
the plants that have been only one year, or ra- 
ther one season, in their blooming- pots, should 
be done without disturbing a fibre. The ball 
should be turned out in the hand, by only 
tapping the edge on the table, and the loose 
crocks, if any, may be removed ; then select 
pots a proper size, and putting a proper quan- 
tity of crocks in the bottom, and some compost 
on this, about enough to raise the ball to a 
proper height, place it in the centre, and care- 
fully fill up the vacancy between the ball and 
the side of the pot with proper compost, with- 
out rubbing, or bruising, or displacing the 
fibres from the side of the ball. This must 
be adjusted so that the collar of the plant 
should be up even with the top edge of the 
pot, and the soil very little below it when 
shook down. In this case gentle watering will 
settle the earth about the roots, and it will 
require no more care than if it had not been 
shifted. The season, however, for this as well 
as the general removal of plants, should be 
July or August. Hogg recommended August, 
and he was a practical man, though originally 
an amateur. Justice, directs the transplant- 
ing of small and large plants in August,, while 
Henderson always did it in May, about the 
third week; but he was for the severe disci- 
pline, and the plants had a good deal to recover 
after the inflictions of his knife.. We could 
here go to considerable length in the descrip- 
tion of the various houses and contrivances for 
wintering the plants;, but we recommend any 
one who likes to see good plants well grown, 
to see Mr. Dickson's, of Acre Lane; there 
will be found hundreds of plants as healthy as 
it is possible to grow them, and in the 
rudest health and strength, wintered in no- 
thing but the common garden frame and light. 
This is sufficient to convince any grower that he 
need not trouble himself about the construction 
of houses for wintering the Auricula. Among 
all the contrivances, there are none to be 
found more generally or more successfully 
used than the ordinary cold frame; and until 
we find some really tangible objection to it, we 
shall trouble ourselves with no other. The 
plant merely requires to be kept from hard 
frosts, Ilea's y rains, and bleak winds, and a frame 
dors this as well as any thing. It. has been 
said that frost docs not injure the Auricula ; 
