206 
THE AURICULA. 
vided in colours, and as good in outline as the 
average of them. It is justly a favourite 
among grey-edged varieties. 
Taylor's Glory. — White - edged bold 
flower, an excellent trusser, with a good truss 
leaf. The flowers are the largest and best, in 
all respects, of the white-edged varieties, when 
grown in perfection. It does not always open 
flat ; but in kindly seasons, when not checked 
by cold winds, it opens flat enough to be showy 
and striking. It is the largest of the white- 
edged varieties. The foliage is bold, and very 
mealy, almost white with powder. 
Taylor's Incomparable. — A rougher, but 
flatter variety, the edge not so good, nor so 
distinct ; a good trusser, and a showable plant, 
but inferior to Glory in all the essential pro- 
perties, yet it is often successful in showing 
for want of better. 
Sharpe's Magpie. — Very beautiful black 
and white colour, well divided, white edge, 
and black inside, paste excellent, tube good, 
but the plant too scarce to have had any- 
thing like justice done to it yet. Only one 
year let out, and very few plants to be had at 
a high price ; nevertheless, when there are 
as many as of other sorts, it will take a high 
stand among the white-edged varieties. 
properties of the auric OLA. 
The properties of the Auricula may be di- 
vided into three series ; namely, those of the 
single pip, those of the single plant, and those 
of a pair as usually shown. 
The Pip. — 1. Should be round, large, 
smooth at the edges, without notch or serra- 
ture, and perfectly flat. 
2. The centre or tube should not exceed 
one-fourth of the diameter of the pip ; it 
should be of a fine yellow or lemon colour, 
perfectly round, well filled with the anthers or 
thrum, and the edge rise a trifle above the 
paste or eye. 
3. The paste, or eye, should be perfectly 
round, smooth, and white, without crack or 
blemish, and form a band or circle not less 
than half the width of the tube all round it. 
4. The ground colour should be dense, 
whole, and form a perfect circle next the eye, 
and on the outer part be finely broken into a 
feathery edge ; the brighter, darker, or richer 
the colour, whichever it may be, the better 
the flower ; but if it be paler at the edges of 
the petals (where they are parted into five) 
or have two colours or shades, it is a fatal 
defect. 
5. The margin or outward edge should be 
a fine unchangeable green or grey, and be 
about the same width as the ground colour, 
which must in no part go through to the edge. 
From the edge of the paste to the outer edge 
of the flower should be as wide as from the 
centre of the tube to the outer edge of the 
paste. In other words, the proportions of the 
flower may be described by drawing four cir- 
cles round a given point at equal distances ; 
the first circle forming the tube, the second 
the white eye, the third the ground colour, and 
the fourth the outer edge of the flower ; and 
the nearer they approximate to this (except 
that the ground colour, and green or grey 
edge, run into each other in feathery points) 
the better the flower. 
Of the Plant. — 1. The stem should be 
strong, round, upright, and elastic, well sup- 
porting itself, and from four to seven inches 
high. 
2. The foot-stalks of the pips or flowers 
should be so proportioned as to length and 
strength that all the pips or flowers may have 
room to show themselves, and to form a close 
compact truss of flowers, not less than seven 
in number, without lapping over each other, 
and all alike in colour, size, and property. 
3. The truss is improved if one or more 
leaves grow and stand up well behind the 
blooms, for it assists the truss, and adds much 
to the beauty of the blooms, by forming a 
green back ground. 
4. The foliage should be healthy, well 
grown, and almost cover the pot. 
Of the Pair. — 1. The pair should be of 
equal height and size both in truss and foliage. 
2. The colours of the flowers should be as 
much contrasted as possible ; a green edge 
and a grey one, a dark ground and a bright 
one, a dark green edge and a light green 
edge, or any other contrast in the colour would 
be a point over equally good flowers not so 
contrasted. 
Some Auriculas have such a singular ten- 
dency to ah excess of green edgingto the bloom, 
that it is not unfrequently the case that Oliver's 
Lovely Ann and the Lancashire Hero come 
with scarcely a line of colour round the white 
eye, and among seedlings raised from the best 
flowers, scores will be found sometimes with a 
white rather clear round the tube but gradually 
going off to a mere dust, and the rest of the 
flower as green as the leaf itself. It is the 
prevailing fault in the flower we have men- 
tioned, that the green predominates too much 
always, and sometimes it is fatally so. 
One of the blemishes of some of our best 
Auriculas is, the predominance of colour, a 
few of our most beautiful varieties to look at, 
can rarely be shown on that account, for there 
can hardly be a worse fault than the ground 
colour breaking through to the edge. The 
Duchess of Oldenburg would be very beautiful 
but for this, but it so seldom comes without 
this fault, that we have grown thirty plants, 
and yet, when all were blooming, at the proper 
season, we could not select a plant. 
