432 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ May 28, 1891. 
and so are Cherries, Black Currants have suffered a good deal in some 
places and crops will be light. Still in more sheltered places there will 
be a good crop. Gooseberries are looking well and will be plentiful, but 
the caterpillars are attacking them very badly ; we are hand-picking 
them, going over them about twice a week, and so keeping them in check. 
Red Currants, too, are looking well; Walnuts are black, all the points 
killed back. Potatoes are cut to the ground that were not protected with 
some kind of covering ; the Oaks and Ash near to water are blackened. 
Still, if we get some warm weather from now onwards, I think the year 
1891 will compare favourably with its predecessor.—J. Williams, The 
Gardens, Whithourne Hall, _ 
Under the above heading you gave in your last issue a long list of 
reports of the late unseasonable weather. I am very sorry to have to 
add one more to that list. On the 11th, 12th, and 13th of the present 
month we had midsummer weather, the temperature rising to 80° in the 
shade on two occasions. On the 14th the wind took a turn and settled 
in the east, and we had some cold storms of rain, hail, and snow for two 
days. On the morning of the 17th we registered 9° of frost, followed 
by more cold storms of snow and hail. This was followed on the 
morning of the 19th by 10° frost. All Potatoes which were above 
ground are blackened, and fruit blossoms, which looked so promising, 
must be much damaged. The flowers of the Black Currant are already 
falling from the bushes wholesale. Gooseberries, which were nearly 
large enough for tarts, have the appearance of being scorched by fire. 
Strawberry blossoms are blackened, and I fear Apples, Pears, Cherries, 
and other fruits will be a light crop. 
I fear that the prospect of a full crop, which a very short time ago 
was so cheering, is now at an end. The trees never looked more pro¬ 
mising, being a sheet of blossom and very healthy. I see the caterpillar 
is making rapid progress, and if not checked promptly will do an 
immense amount of damage.—T. Arnold, Cirencester. 
A WEEK having passed since the sharp frost of the 16th and 17th, we 
are able to estimate the amount of damage done to our fruit crops 
thereby. As regards my own orchard and th^se of my immediate 
neighbours, which are situated on low ground, and as a general rule 
suffer more from frosts than those on higher levels, I believe such 
damage is very slight. Neither Cherries nor Plums seem to be 
seriously damaged, and both appear to be setting heavy crops. Pears 
also look satisfactory, the blossom on which was fully expanded at 
the time of the frost. Only a small portion of the Apple blossom was 
then open, and I do not think it has suffered much injury. Contrary 
to general rules, trees on the h’gher grounds appear to have .suffered 
much more severely than ours. I yesterday was told by several having 
fruit grounds so situated near to here that their Plum crop is ruined. 
I also find that the amount of frost they registered was several 
degrees higher than was the case here. I attribute the fact that the 
higher grounds suffered most to be owing to the snowstorm immediately 
preceding the frost, which had made all wet alike, and the cutting 
easterly wind, which struck with more force on such grounds. 
The caterpillars appear remarkably inactive at present as compared 
with previous seasons, and are scarcely larger in size now than were 
specimens examined three weeks since. The trees are already getting 
well covered with healthy-looking foliage, much of which is entirely 
uninjured by the maggots. We have had heavy rains during the past 
week, which have penetrated to a consideraWe depth, and will do 
incalculable good to the trees. Yesterday was warm and genial, with 
the wind S.S.E. On Monday it has again veered round to N.E., and the 
weather was correspondingly cold and gloomy.—W. K. W., Leicester. 
The past week has been an improvement on the preceding. The first 
few days were dry, bright, and cold, but latterly a good few heavy rain- 
showers have fallen, and the air has been somewhat softer, although 
north-easterly winds still continue. The temperature during the night 
has been low, and hoar frost has occurred on several morning.s. More 
rain is much needed.—B. D., 8. Perthshire. 
THE AURICULA. 
[A paper read by Mr. G. W. Gill, at the meeting of the Wakefield Paxton Society, 
May 2nd.] 
( Continued from page 412.') 
One of the fir.st properties in Auriculas is the shaded petal. In the 
Alpine the base of the marginal or ground colour must be dark with a paler 
edge, the dark hue shading off into the pale tint, and the more richly 
shaded a flower is the more is it appreciated. Another important 
property in the Alpine is that whether the centre be yellow, cream, or 
even white it must be free from any trace of the much-prized meal which 
is found in the true self Auricula. The yellow centre is not indispen¬ 
sable to the true Alpine as now grown, for there are some fine shaded 
flowers having white centres, but the yellow centred varieties are con¬ 
sidered by far the most valuable by growers of the Alpine Auricula. 
Pale yellow centres are admissible, but the nearer they approach to 
white the less their value. So much were the yellow-centred Alpines 
esteemed above those with white centres that within the last six or seven 
years it has been found necessary to create a special class for the last 
named at the Exhibition of the National Auricula Society. 
The edge of the Auricula is very different from the edge of a Sweet 
William. Indeed, the whole beauty of the Auricula is original, curious, 
and striking. It is not due alone to the colouring of the petals, but the 
presence of the smooth and snow white meal laid on certain parts of the 
flower (as well as on the plant in some cases) adds greatly to the beauty 
of both plant and flower. 
The stem of the Auricula ought to carry its own head well above the 
foliage of the plant without the aid of “ crutches.” The stalk of each 
pip must be set so as to allow each one of them to stand in regular 
order and stiff upon the truss. If the pips be crowded too closely 
together small pieces of cotton wool should be carefully placed between 
the pips to keep them at their respective distances from each other. 
The pip itself should be strong, exactly round, and flat, but as a rule the 
seifs are generally of a much thinner substance than the other classes. 
In the centre of the pip is a “tube ” varying in colour from gold to 
greenish yellow, and set round with yellow anthers. The number of 
anthers required in the Auricula is five—that is, one anther for each 
petal, so that there should always be five petals as well ; but when a pip 
contains, as it sometimes does, more than five petals, there is generally 
an attendant anther. The tube is thus the central feature of the flower, 
and if it should be in any way faulty it spoils the whole flower. The 
tube should thus be round, of good strong substance, of a rich yellow 
colour, and should rise to the level of. the pip when flatly expanded. 
The positions of the pistil (or seed pod) and of the anthers as they 
rest within the tube are of very great importance, as they vary in many 
ways. In some cases the pistil is in or beyond the mouth of the tube, 
and the anthers are at the bottom ; or-in another flower the anthers 
may be at the mouth and the p’stil among them ; but in a florist’s 
point of view the anthers, which should be bold, are round the 
mouth of the tube, and the pistil is at the bottom, and their being in 
any other position will disqualify the whole flower. Take a handful 
of Cowslips or Primroses and you will find that, like the Auricula, the 
positions of pistil and anthers within the tubes are various. 
Next in order upon the pip comes a ring of white meal, which is 
termed the paste. This should be smooth, thick, circular, white, 
and free from all blotches. After the paste comes the circle known 
amongst Auricula growers as the ground colour. This should be 
very dense and bright, free from any dots of meal, and with a good 
style of marking—that is, feathering off in flashes towards the cir¬ 
cumference of the flower. Sometimes a yellowish tinge of colour 
creeps in between the ground colour and the paste, or the ground colour 
itself may very often lose its density and pale off into a weaker colour 
nearer the paste, and wherever either of these freaks may be present it 
forms an unsightly fault, and however pretty some people may think a 
shaded petal looks in the most common of bedding Alpines generally 
grown about Wakefield, it is not in the floris.’s Auricula, a beauty so 
deep and pure as the one rich colour. 
Beyond the ground, and making up the outline of the flower, come.9 
the much-prized edge. For a green-edge it should be a bright solid 
green, free from all meal; for a grey-edge the green is frosted over with 
a slight sprinkling of the meal ; and for a white-edge it should be as 
thoroughly whitened over as the paste itself ; so, as I before remarked, the 
classification is determined by the absence or the quantity of meal 
upon the edge of the flower. 
The space which the tube and other circles occupy in the flower 
should be well and evenly balanced ; they vary very much in this 
respect according to the florist’s standard. I take the pistil, or seed 
pod, as the centre of all the flower, and the distance from pistil to paste, 
the paste to the ground colour, from ground to edge, and from edge to 
the circumference, should each be equally proportioned in width. A. 
good bro.ad paste and fine tube have a most telling effect, but on no 
account should one circle encroach upon another ; if this occurs it mars 
the evenness of the whole flower, and causes it to look either cramped 
in one circle, or very one-sided. 
Cultivation. 
Having given a short sketch of the nationality, described the 
different classes of which the Auricula is composed, and given what I 
consider the standard of perfection attainable by that plant, and also 
defined certain drawbacks which are observable in any collection, I will 
commence with the mode of cultivation and aspect customary with old 
Auricula growers and exhibitors. 
The growth of the Auricula through February, March, and April 
is very fast, considering that they are in no way forced. As the flowers 
die break the stem off just below the truss (that is if it is not required to 
seed). It will then ripen, dry as a bit of straw, but if it be broken short 
it may decay, and so kill the plant. The plants will still continue to 
grow fast, and will make the largest foliage they will ever have. That 
is the time for removing them to their summer quarters, the Auricula 
delights in being kept crisp and dewy through the summer. Nothing 
will answer the purpose for the habitation of the plants during summer 
months better than a clean well-ventilated frame in the shade of a north 
aspect. The Auricula must not be kept too wet, and here it will require 
less frequent waterings. Let the plants have the warm gentle rain, 
though there is a great safety in keeping dry overhead a plant with a 
water-logged heart ; let them have all the air possible, but of course 
protect against strong winds, which would sadly wreck the foliage and 
check the plants materially. If any are w.anted for seed either leave 
them in their quarters or place them in the frame with the north aspect 
with the others ; the only difference will be the pods will ripen a little 
later, and the plants will not be so much distressed with the sunshine as 
in the house. 
There is a great divergence of opinion as to the proper time for 
