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THE PREPARATION OF AURICULAS FOR EXHIBITION. 
this article, wliicli, though not strictly oi a practical character, is yet, I think, calculated to couvey my 
opinion of the styles to be adopted in the higher class of terraces, better than more mechanical definition. 
The vUla Albani, perhaps, realizes more than any other the dreams of the Italian villa, that haunt the 
imagination before having seen Italy. It is chaste, and severely classic in its style, yet, withal, richly 
magnificent, a rare and difficult combmation. And to its intrinsic fcatm'es, the charms of position 
are superadded, the range of views from its marble terraces commanding the finest portions of the pic- 
turesque campagna, with its rugged lines of half -crumbling acqueducts, and scattered groups of de- 
tached ruins. 
The gardens of the Borghesian villa, Moudragone, at Fraseati, combine, to an unusual extent, the 
richness of immediately surrounding features with the result of art. The noblest views over the Appenuie 
range, and the campagna, the latter extending even to Rome, where the vast cupola of St. Peter's are 
seen describing a dim blue arch upon the horizon. The various and picturesque foreground offered by 
the rich marble terraces of Mondragone have not been overlooked by artists ; many distant views of 
Rome, and of the ever-attractive campagna, having been painted from this spot. 
THE PREPARATION OF AURICULAS FOR EXHIBITION. 
By Mk. GEOKGE GLENNY, F.H.S. 
eF all the beauties which are nursed by florists, not one deserves more or gets less attention than 
the very beautiful Auricula. Simple as is its cultui'e under proper management, yet the whole 
year's luxurious growth, and the finest health, will not secure us a bloom unless we pay the greatest 
attention at the proper time. There is no exotic that should be more strictly attended to m point of 
temperature. It is no use to say A. B. never does anything to warm or to cool his, and the open air 
is enough ; because, although there are some seasons wherein nature is even tempered, and nothing in- 
clement visits us, and, therefore. Auriculas might bloom well almost of themselves, there are others 
which vary twenty degrees withm a very short period, and would destroy all the perfection, if not all 
the beauty, of an Auricula. The flower does not requne heat, but it does not like cold ; and when an 
ardent fancier sees his bloom crumpled, and attributes it to his soil or liis management of the plants, 
he has only to blame the change of temperature that he has allowed to reach them after the flower 
stem came up. The Aui'icula should not suffer much change of temperatm'e after the bloom rises : it 
should certainly have no frost, and only morning and evening sun. Heat is as bad as cold to the 
Am'icula, but both are bad, and the efiect is indisputably shown in the crumpled blooms — for the plant 
in itself is hardy enough. It has been recorded of the old and enthusiastic exhibitors of the Auriciila, 
that dm'ing the blooming time, when they are removed to a snug corner under hand-glasses, they 
would take the blankets from their beds when they anticipated a frost, and cover up their favomite 
plants, a circumstance likely enough to be true, for we have known them to do things not a whit less 
extravagant. 
We shall only trace the plants from the time the bloom pips show. And first, instead of the 
frames being opened almost mechanically in the morning and closed at night, the weather must decide 
the matter. If the thermometer indicates less than thu'tj'-five degrees, they must only be tilted a httle 
on the side or end opijosite to the wind, but if up to forty and mild, let the glasses come quite ofi'. 
If there be a beating rain keep everything close, but if a genial warm shower let the plants have it all. 
If the sun come out very bright and warm, shade the plants through the heat of the mid-day. Keep 
them always fi-om extremes ; and when they come up tall and begin to open their pips, remove them 
to a sheltered jflace, on a grass plot if you have it ; place the pots under hand-glasses, which should 
rest on the bottoms of four flower-pots that will let the edge of the glass an inch below the edge of the 
pots in wliich the plants are growing; they, however, would be just as well on a table. All round 
about the place must be well watered to keep the dust from spoiling the flowers. Reduce the number 
of pips to seven, eight, or nine, which are enough to show oft' any flower in the world ; and with a bit 
of soft moss placed between every two pips, keep them sufiiciently apart to prevent them touching as 
they open ; this must be carried right through the truss so as to give every pip room to open without 
interfering with its neighbours, for when they are once cramped and crumpled, they never come 
right again by all the art we can use. When the pips open free all romid, they will completely fill up 
the truss, and they will open both round and flat. While they are under the glasses they have to 
be examined every day, more than once or twice, to see that they are going on right, and that none of ^ 
the moss slips out of its place, because the pip which it kept in its place would give way and open /^[k 
