202 
THE AURICULA. 
each other, by tucking bits of soft moss, or lint, 
(the former, however, is far the better) between 
the foot-stalks, so as to place the pips a suf- 
ficient distance from each other to open freely 
without touching ; and any pips that are 
coming deformed, or too weak to open the 
size of the rest, or too much advanced to keep 
while the others overtake them, may be re- 
moved with sharp pointed scissors or tweezers, 
and great attention must be paid, that none of 
those which are to remain get damaged in the 
operation. When the colours become pretty 
clear in the budding pips, and they begin to 
open out well, those intended for exhibition 
should be removed to a warm sheltered spot, 
and be placed under hand-glasses, on a table 
or bench, if convenient ; but if not, on a vevy 
clear spot of ground, out of the way of wind 
and dust. Water must be administered 
freely while the blooms are advancing, for 
they require a good deal of nourishment, to 
give then size, and colour, and character ; 
and would be seriously checked, if allowed to 
want it. Care must also be taken to cover from 
frost. The hand-glasses ought to stand on 
four flower pots reversed, arid placed at the 
corners, of a proper height to let the edge of 
the glass down an inch below the edges of the 
pots in which the plants are ; but in windy 
weather, it will be necessary to cover mats on 
the windy side, and the sun must be kept off, 
by as light a cloth or calico as can be had, for 
light is of great service in bringing out the 
colours. Continue to reject seedlings that are 
useless, and to pick off' the pips of small plants 
that you wish to grow well, as the blooming will 
retard them. Attend well to watering seed- 
lings and small plants, as the smaller the pot 
the sooner they dry, and the plants suffer ac- 
cordingly. Take off dead leaves, and occa- 
sionally clean out the frames. The examination 
of the plants blooming for show, should be 
frequent, because the blooms arranged one day, 
may, by their growth, displace some of the 
moss, and they will require very frequent 
adjustment, for by means of the moss, properly 
attended to, the flowers will be grown into 
their proper position, and want no dressing on 
the day of show, but merely removing the 
moss. 
May. — The treatment should in all respects 
be similar to last month, for the greater part 
•if April, and more than half of May, gives 
us blooming specimens in every stage, from 
just opening to the perfect flower ; but as some 
of the early ones will have gone off bloom, you 
may place them in a frame by themselves, in 
a shady situation, and allow them to receive a 
moderate share of genial rain, but cover them 
against violent falls, and in stormy weather. 
Those who intend saving seed should remove 
half a dozen choice varieties, whose properties 
they wish to amalgamate, and place them under 
a hand-glass, supported by pots a few inches 
from the ground. The plants to select should 
be one season potted, and they should be taken 
before the pips are forward enough to be fer- 
tilized. As soon as they show well enough to 
enable us to distinguish perfect from imperfect 
pips, those most perfect in each truss should 
be selected for seed, and the remainder be 
picked off. The number of pips to leave on, 
may be determined by the quality ; if there are 
two or three equally good, two or three may 
be retained ; if there be one better than the 
rest, that one alone should be kept. These 
plants must be refreshed with water, and may 
be uncovered, to receive the benefit of a mild 
shower, but the glass should be placed over 
them at night ; and if there should be any 
indication of frost, a mat, also, that will reach 
to the ground, as frost might prevent them 
from seeding. Some would take the trouble 
to fertilize them artificially, but this is a mat- 
ter of fancy. To do this the anthers must be 
removed, before they burst, from the one to 
be impregnated, and then, with a camel's hair 
brush, take the powder from some fine pip of 
the sort whose properties are required to be 
imparted to the seedlings, and take it to the 
plant to be seeded. If the pistil be in a con- 
dition to receive the pollen, it will take it from 
the camel's hair pencil or brush freely : by 
this means your best pips on all the selected 
plants may be impregnated with the pollen 
taken from the best pips in the whole collec- 
tion ; and thus something like a chance of a 
fine race of seedlings will be secured, as far as 
our means of providing for it enables us to do 
so. It is well to study what properties are 
required by any particular variety to improve 
it, and to apply the pollen of a flower posses- 
sing that quality. The depriving of the plants 
of some ot their buds will increase the strength 
of those left, and augment the chances of pro- 
ducing good seed ; and, confining the selected 
plants to those with some good property, and 
fertilizing with others of known other good 
properties, will afford reasonable hope of saving 
a little seed of first-rate quality, and producing 
plants of a desirable quality. 
June. — The plants, as they have done 
blooming, maybe placed in a frame, in a shady 
situation, as before directed ; and as no seed 
may be required from the general collection, 
the whole of the pips may be picked off, but 
the stem ought not to be broken ; they must 
be watered occasionally, or be allowed to have 
rain, and be uncovered altogether, except in 
stormy weather, and especially when the wind 
is boisterous. They may suffer from too much 
wet ; but if the bottom of the frame is imper- 
vious to water, and will allow it to run off, 
there will be little danger. Yellow leaves 
