April 24, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
317 
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COMING EVENTS 
24 
Th 
Royal Society at 4.30 P.M. 
25 
F 
Quekett Club at 8 P.M. 
26 
S 
Royal Botanic Society at 3.45 P.M. 
27 
Sun 
2nd Sunday after Easter. 
28 
M 
29 
TU 
80 
W 
Society of Arts at 8 P.M. 
AURICULAS—A REVIEW WITH REFLECTIONS. 
URICULAS are in the ascendant just now, and 
thousands of plants are sparkling with their 
lovely flowers. For chasteness in outline, per¬ 
fection in character, and striking contrasts in 
colour, it is questionable if so much beauty is 
condensed into a similarly small space as in the 
flower under notice. It is quite true that all 
admirers of flowers cannot equally appreciate the 
charms of this pretty Alpine gem. We have 
heard a most extensive cultivator of hardy flowers describe 
the Auricula as “ stilted, formal, and chilling,” but that 
certainly does not represent the taste of the majority. There 
are still more individuals who cherish flowers, including 
Auriculas, but who are unable to comprehend the “ points ” 
of merit in a flower to which florists attach importance. 
We know that such is the case from the many seedlings that 
have been sent to us from time to time as possessing merit, 
but which were practically worthless as judged by the florists’ 
high standard of excellence. 
Most, if not all, the growers of repute have similar 
experience. On this subject the Rev. F. D. Horner wrote to 
us eight years ago :—“ Some beginners (for one told me so) 
feel confused and lost as to what constitutes excellence, and 
even difference in the flower. One bemoaned the blindness 
through which he could see no distinction worth mentioning 
between a white and a grey edge. Well, there is more hope 
of him than of one fair visitor that day, who remarked that 
these Auriculas might be rare but they were not pretty ! I 
do not know that these her words are worth embalming in 
the Journal, but it is well that tastes so charmingly differ. 
The sublimity of the Sunflower, the beauty of the broad 
Pffiony, the brave spectacle of heavy masses of bloom, are the 
delight of many eyes ; but without even affecting to despise 
these greater things, a florist with his flowers has that subtle 
enjoyment of his eyesight which delicate and curious flowers 
so well afford. May I, then, say to younger growers of 
Auriculas than myself, Do not be discouraged by present 
confusion and lack of discernment. You will feel and see 
your way as you go on. With an accustomed eye you will 
grow to detect a difference where now you see none. The 
differences that are so delicate grow to be quite plain. And 
this is one pleasure with Auriculas, that where the outside 
world that coldly wonders and passing on sees small variety, 
the eye of the florist finds many enjoyable and delicate 
degrees of beauty. I am sorry the Auricula is left lan¬ 
guishing in metropolitan favour. One would have thought 
its bare claim as a spring flower would be enough to make it 
a great favourite everywhere.” 
With that we concurred. We regretted also that the 
flower was then “languishing” in the south; and hence it 
was that we readily gave such support and encouragement as 
was in our power to the effort that immediately followed in 
forming a southern branch of the National Auricula Society, 
which then only had one annual exhibition—namely, at 
Manchester. 
When the southern section of the Society under notice, 
No. 200.— Vol. VIII., Third Series, 
which has just held its seventh exhibition, was established, 
the whole question of special societies was very properly 
discussed in the horticultural press, and, rightly or wrongly, a 
verdict was arrived at that such societies have a tendency to 
degrade horticulture, and likely in the long run to do more 
harm than good. We were not able to assent to that dictum, 
and on the occasion of the first National Auricula Show being 
held in the Crystal Palace on April 24th, 1877, observed 
that such shows really promote horticulture in the most 
direct and practical manner. They take its departments in 
detail and perfect them the more quickly by a concentration 
of effort incident to their nature, and in the end do good and 
not harm. That first show was a great success, and we 
expressed a hope that it would be succeeded by others still 
greater, and that these beautiful flowers would increase in 
numbers and popularity. Greater shows followed, and the 
largest and the best of the series is reported in another 
column of our present issue. 
Auriculas have also increased in numbers, and not a few 
very beautiful new varieties have been raised. Auricula 
growers are similarly more numerous, but there has not, per¬ 
haps, been a proportionate increase in the number of exhibitors 
of florists’ flowers in the south. Though we should be glad 
if the number of exhibitors were tenfold greater than at 
present, we still see little to deplore in this absence of rapid 
increase. Exhibiting and making money by the process is 
not the object of all who grow flowers, only a mere fractional 
part of the community estimate their favourites by the 
amount they will win. Some possessors of small collec¬ 
tions of plants hesitate to stage them in public from the 
conviction that they have only a very remote chance of 
competing successfully with the professional showmen, 
whose skill and resources they fear to encounter. Still it 
must be said that those who exhibit do so with no sordid 
object, but as an earnest of their desire to encourage 
others to become cultivators of flowers that afford such 
delight to the possessors. So earnest are many that 
they risk injuring their plants for the gratification of 
others, and from a financial point of view lose far more 
than they gain by their enterprise in exhibiting. Those 
are the true florists that are honoured and admired, and 
they have the reward of having induced the more extended 
culture of the flowers they love in the gardens of hundreds of 
persons whose lives are made happier and homes brighter 
thereby. That is or should be the ultimate object of the 
promoters of flower shows special or general, and so long as 
that object is apparent there will be no lack of interest in 
their work. 
Exhibitions of Auriculas, of all flowers, are among the 
most beautiful spectacles that can be provided for the delecta¬ 
tion of the public. They are also instructive. It is there 
better than anywhere that the inexperienced admirer and 
young cultivator may ascertain the characteristics of high- 
class flowers, and the defects of blooms relatively inferior. 
Information is readily given by experts, florists’ “ secrets ” 
having long since been relegated to obscurity. The shows 
in question further afford, or ought to do, an opportunity 
for agreeable gatherings of friends who may derive enjoyment 
from intercommunion and pleasure from the “ simple source 
of flowers.” If they fail in this respect they are at once’ 
shorn of an important element in contributing to their 
permanency and success; as far as possible they should be 
chosen as favourable occasions for removing grievances, 
real or fancied, and mitigating asperities, and those who act 
in a contrary spirit incur a grave responsibility. This we 
are positive is the conviction of the majority who, like our¬ 
selves, wish to see floral societies prosper and harmony prevail 
throughout the horticultural ranks. 
TRANSPLANTING ONIONS versus THE MAGGOT. 
It is stated in an old edition of the “ Encyclopedia Brit* 
tanica ” that transplanted Onions “ remain free from wireworm 
No. 1866.—Vol. LXX., Old Series. 
