336 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 2% 1888. 
in a small pot of sandy soil, the cut portion to be left level with the 
surface soil. Buds will form, and ultimately plants will be pro¬ 
duced from them. The plants may also be cut close to the surface 
when they have a long stem, llootlets push out from the stem 
above the ground. Let the plants be cut close to the surface, and 
the top part will soon grow into as good or perhaps better specimen 
than it was before. It may be interesting to state that the first ex¬ 
hibition of the National Auricula Society (southern section) was 
held on the 24th April, 1877, at the Crystal Palace. Since that 
time forty-four first-class certificates have been awarded by the 
Society to show Auriculas, exclusive of the present year. They 
are as follows, and only those marked with an * have been sent out. 
In 1877 no awards were made. 
1878. —*Silvia (Douglas) grey edge. 
,, *Omega (Turner) white edge. 
1879. —Ringdove (Horner) self. 
,, Grey Friar (Llewelyn) grey edge. 
1880. —Cyclops (Horner) green edge. 
„ Orion (Horner) green edge. 
,, Thetis (Horner) grey edge. 
,, ^Heroine (Horner) self. 
,, Rob Roy (Smith) exhibited by Mr. Dean, green. 
„ Rev. F. Tymons (Dean) green edge. 
,, ^Conservative (Douglas) white edge. 
„ *Mrs. Dodwell (Simonite) white edge, sent out as 
Heather bell. 
„ ®Mrs. Doiiglas (Simonite) self. 
„ Lord Salisbury (Mellor) self. 
1881. —King of Greens (Barlow) green edge. 
„ ®Mabel (Douglas) grey edge. 
„ Snowdrift (Horner) white edge. 
„ Erebus (-) self. 
1882. —Agamemnon (Horner) green edge. 
„ Luna (Horner) grey edge. 
„ Corona (Horner) self. 
,, Jumbo (Douglas) grey edge. 
,, *^Mrs. Moore (Douglas) grey edge. 
,, ^-'Duke of Albany (Douglas) self. 
,, George Rudd (Woodhead) grey edge. 
,, Mrs. Dodwell (Woodhead) white edge. 
,, ^Brunette (Pohlman) self. 
1883. —Green Finch (Barlow) green edge. 
„ ''Ajax (Horner) grey edge. 
„ ^^'Conservative second time in error, white. 
1884. —Merlin (Horner) grey edge. 
„ Magpie (Horner) white edge. 
,, Mrs. Horner (Horner) self. 
1885. —^William Brockbank (Mellor) exhibited by Mr. Brock- 
bank. 
188G.'—No certificates awarded. 
1887.—Grayling (Horner) grey edge. 
„ Magpie (Horner) white edge. 
„ Amanda {Horner) white edge. 
„ Dulcie (Horner) self. 
„ Rubra (Horner) self. 
„ Edward Pohlman (Turner) green edge. 
„ James Douglas (Bolton) green edge. 
,, Samuel Barlow (Bolton) grey edge. 
„ Abbe Lizst (Douglas) green edge. 
„ Sir William Hewett (Douglas) self. 
Having been frequently asked when this or that variety of the 
show Auriculas are to be sent out, the above list will supply the 
information sought. It also shows the work being done in raising 
seedling varieties, and gives some idea of the quality of the work, 
for it is not to be supposed that any of the above varieties would 
receive first-class certificates unless they had some qualities inherent 
to them not belonging to the older varieties. In fact, all the old 
Auriculas, with the exception of perhaps George Lightbody 
(Headley), Smiling Beauty (Heap), Lancashire Hero (Lancashire), 
and—but I cannot name another—must go out of cultivation in a 
few years. From the above list Horner's Greyhound is omitted. 
It has not yet received a certificate, but the year in which it was 
first exhibited it won premium as the best Auricula of any class. 
In the old-fashioned garden at Low'fields are numerous seedlings in 
all the classes as yet unknown to fame, but they will be brought 
into notice as soon as they have been proved equal to their first 
promise. Scores of good growers north and south are now raising 
seedlings, and the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to 
the strong. The raisers of Smiling Beauty and Lancashire Hero 
were small growers, handloom weavers by trade, yet their names 
have long been cherished by Auricula growers and will not soon be 
forgotten. Considerable enthusiasm has been aroused in the south. 
New growers are being added every j'ear, and we m.ay hope that the 
interest excited may be maintained, in order that these and other 
delightful old florists’ flowers may not be lost to sight, and only be. 
dear to us as memorials of the past.—J as. Douglas. 
NOTES ON EARLY ENGLISH HORTICULTURE. 
No. 1. 
The gardeners’ pursuits and civilisation have gone in company 
over our world from its earliest recorded history until now,, 
and the high culture of England at the present time has raised 
our horticulture to a position of importance beyond that it ever 
occupied before. "We know that where savage life prevails gardens- 
rarely exist; the ignorance, laziness, and brutality, as also the 
poverty, frequent amongst barbarous tribes, seem to forbid 
anything save agriculture of a rude kind, to which the men, or 
perhaps the women, are driven by necessity. Cultivation of flowers,, 
fruit, and choice vegetables to please the palate, afford variety in 
diet, or gratify the fine sensibilities of the eye and no.se, is not an 
employment likely to be followed by a degraded people. Even in a 
civilised land the art of gardening has its vicissitudes. Such has- 
been the case with Britain. To take one instance, it is a fact that 
during the latter yeais of the reign of George III. horticulture made- 
little progress, owing to the drain on the country’s resources througR 
long wars, and the great interruption to commerce which they 
caused. Recently I have been led to observe while in some metro¬ 
politan suburbs where much distress has prevailed, that many of 
the inhabitants are not showing their. usual diligence in attending- 
to their little gardens on the approach of spring. Some delay may 
have arisen from the ungenial weather, but there are those who- 
have no heart for gardening because of the shadow of want which 
darkens their homes, and there is also a lack of means to purchase- 
seeds or plants. 
But leaving the present for the past, however, and not to dw e 
lengthily on antiquarian details, or recall the history of Adam and 
Eve, it is well, before writing about early English gardening, just 
to remind the reader that Esiypt, the home of most primiti-ve arts, 
was certainly the land where gardening was first extensively 
practised. The old Egyptians grew a variety of vegetables, and 
they had also gardens of herbs for flavouring purposes or medi¬ 
cine. They planted in avenues the Sycamore, Fig, or Mulberry, 
and other fruit trees ; we have, moreover, evidence from their 
ancient monuments that they had for delectation gardens of 
flowers and shrubberies. Now the Phoenicians, the Sidonians pro¬ 
bably also, who were great travellers in their day and had much to 
do with Egypt, visited Kngland ages before the birth of Christ, 
but they do not appear to have imparted to our remote ancestors the 
art of gardening, or indeed any art. These early navigators came 
to this islind simply as traders, and imparted no knowledge, as we- 
may well suppose, to a wild people with whom they probably con¬ 
versed by signs. 
When Julius Cresar landed in Britain he found on her shores a 
Celtic race which had attacked the original inhabitants, a dwarf 
race of Mongolian type, had conquered and killed many, driving 
the rest to the hills. These had no knowledge of plant cultivation, 
but they may have had flocks. Their successors, who fought so- 
fiercely with the Roman legions, understood how to sow, tend, and 
gather in a crop of Wheat or other Grass. Nor were tliese ancestors; 
of ours altogether as b.arharous as the common representation 
makes them to have been. There were differences amongst them, 
and the tribes near the coast had made most progress. Old British 
barrows or burying places that have been explored show they 
possessed a variety of tools and weapons far superior to the primi¬ 
tive knives of flint. Capital knives, furnished even -with sheaths, 
have been unearthed, made, not of iron usually, which was scarce, 
but of brass—f.e., copper and tin mixed, resembling the brass of' 
the Greeks. Here is one of the two earliest implements; required 
for agriculture or gardening—viz., an article by which plants could 
be cut. The other, a pick or spade of some primitive kind, the 
Britons had besides, we may be sure, though not now discoverable. 
They were acquainted with one means, at least, of improving a 
poor soil, for it is stated they used as manure on some fields of clay, 
a marl, either chalk, or chalk mixed with lime. But the corn was 
housed by them in places underground, without threshing it, and as 
long as it lasted they beat out of the ears day by day what they 
required. Rude fencing was placed about their crops to protect 
these from various enemies, and it is supposed they understood how 
, to plant a quickset hedge, selecting shrubs prickly or thorny for this 
purpose. 
Probably the Britons protected their orchards thus, for it is 
manifest that they planted Apple trees, from the various references 
to this fruit. The ancient name of Glastonbury is said to have 
been Ynjjs Avella, meaning an “ Apple orchard.'’ 'Wlirtaker thinks 
the Apple wa^ first cultivated by the Hajdui of Somersetshire, and 
