405 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 12,1891. 
meeting, July 8th, 1890. The name Corningianum must therefore 
be dropped. We have not a plant in flower at the present time, 
but so far as we can recollect your representation of it is a very 
good one.” 
The flower is large, massive, and of a particularly bold 
appearance ; the dorsal sepal broad, white, with greenish and 
purple prominent veins running from the base to margin. The 
petals are also broad and drooping, white and green-tinted, with 
dark crimson or purplish dots, and marginal rows of hairs. The 
lip is neat in form, greenish, with a polished surface and a light 
staminode. The white ground of the flower gives it a very 
distinct effect amongst hybrid Cypripediums. 
LEAF SOIL. 
I no not think gardeners, as a rule, pay nearly enough attention 
to the storing of leaves for future use, especially where strong soil 
has to be managed. It is much more valuable than the bulk of 
farmyard manure, especially that from the cowhouse for land of 
the character indicated. I know that here without leaf soil it 
would be most difficult to succeed with the flower garden were it 
not for the liberal employment of leaf soil annually. With the aid 
of this and a small portion of peat we can manage to have a fair 
show in the beds. Alternantheras would not exist in the natural 
soil here, and to make as free with the use of peat as is desirable 
would prove an expensive matter. 
The yearly decay of leaves in a natural way as described by 
“ H. D.” (page 279) make a fairly good substitute for peat for a 
variety of plants. In the beds devoted to carpet plants we would 
wish for nothing better than this annual collection of leaves 
decaying one upon another. When possible we mulch the surface 
of the herbaceous borders in the autumn with a compost mainly 
consisting of leaf soil, and which, lightly forked in in the spring, 
render s the surface in a capital condition the whole of the summer, 
not only for the benefit of the occupants, but for the ease with which 
hoeing is accomplished. Alpine plants on the rockery, too, we 
treat in a similar manner as to the mulching, and that it is 
beneficial the following season’s growth amply testifies. 
Then, again, with regard to shrubs and certain species of Conifer, 
were it not for a free use of leaf soil we should get along badly 
with the growth of these plants. For instance, the various 
Retinosporas, Hemlock Spruce, and several Thuias would scarcely 
exist in our natural soil. By freely employing leaves partly 
decomposed we are enabled to reduce the cost of Rhododendron 
cultivation fully one-half of what it would come to were peat 
even of a poor character solely depended upon. Our calcareous 
soil would mean a speedy death to these charming plants if 
used in the smallest quantity for them to grow in, it being a well- 
known fact that lime in any form is certain death to American 
plants.—E. M. 
AURICULA HOUSES. 
A correspondent, “M.,” asks a question or two about the 
culture of Auriculas under glass. If a house is to be built 
expressly for them, I would have a span-roofed one, with north 
and south run, and placed where late and early sunshine could have 
full play upon it ; the glass to come down to the level of the pots, 
and the ventilation to be very thorough in both the roof and sides. 
“M.’s ” principal inquiry is, Whether Auriculas, for show purposes, 
can be grown in the same house all the year round ? and I can 
answer that they may, even if the house has a full south aspect, 
and is of a lean-to description. I would not, however, choose one 
of this sort as an ideal home for the Auricula ; nevertheless, the 
two houses in which I grow mine are of this aspect and formation, 
in lengths of 20 and 30 feet, and the glass comes down to the level 
of the pots. The plants on the back stages are some 6 feet from 
the glass in the rows most distant from it, but they approach nearer 
and rearer till the foremost on the front stages are pretty close to 
it. I find no perceptible difference in the growth of the plants at 
the back or front except this, that those nearest the back wall will 
turn slightly to the light ; but this any plant will do, even in the 
open air, if there is a wall close behind it. The Auriculas, even on 
the front stages, will show a tendency to do this, and will incline 
to the point where the light is brightest in any kind of house. But 
the effect is easily corrected by occasionally turning the plants 
round. I have ventilation enough for anything in the lean-to’s— 
for all the sides and fronts open from end to end—and there are 
long wide ventilating lights in the roofs with only 2 feet of solid 
glass between. 
I did not build these houses expressly for Auriculas, but for 
several years past my Auriculas have never been removed from 
them at any season of the yex r , except some of the seedlings which 
have to be planted out in the open ground till they attain to a 
large or flowering size, when they are potted and brought into 
the house to stay there if they are worth their room. 
I would, however, particularly state that Auriculas in a house 
of sunny aspect all the year round will require distinctly more 
attention during summer than they would if from early in May 
to early October they could have a house with a cool exposure. 
Granted that care is constant and wise enough in either case, I find 
that they will do well in either situation, and what may seem 
rather curious is that I have quite as little autumn bloom in my 
south aspect houses as I used to have in my north aspect 
frames. 
But situations, like circumstances, alter cases. I have never 
grown Auriculas out of Yorkshire. In a moorland and mountain 
air, and in a hotter and drier district, I should prefer having 
summer quarters for them in a north aspect house. 
Points on which Auriculas will require greater watchfulness in 
houses of a sunny aspect are as follows :—The plants will want 
shading during bright sunshine from the middle of March till early 
in October. I do not believe in “permanent” shading for any¬ 
thing. A dull day is the very sunshine of shade-loving plants, and 
it is too bad to rob them of their richest light. Here the Auriculas 
are the near neighbours of the cool Orchids, and it is not much 
extra work to run the shading down over the hardy pets when 
protecting the complexions of the tender ones. 
With Auriculas, as with Orchids, it is a great gain in coolness 
to have the shading material kept by arme easy contrivance fi’om 
touching the glass by a foot or so. Of course, in bright weather 
Auriculas must have every inch of ventilation on, unless there be 
also a high or drying wind. In such case the ventilation should be 
chiefly in the roof, taking care that the shading material is free of 
the glass. Green fly, always troublesome with Auriculas, is no less 
so in a sunny aspect, and will require much persecution, especially 
in a spell of hot weather. Thrips I have never seen on the 
Auricula in a cool or northern aspect ; but ever since I once saw 
an attempt made by them on a plant here and there in my houses, 
I have during summer often added tobacco liquor with a little 
softsoap, which gives additional efficacy to the water with which I 
frequently syringe the plants in dry weather through the summer. 
Thrips attack the upper surfaces of the leaves, and both the inner 
and outer ones of the young hearts, and so are open to destruction 
from above by these means. But though syringing with medicated 
waters will destroy also all green fly reached by it, there are so 
many that will hide under the broad leaves that I have always 
found it necessary to dip Auriculas to free them completely 
from aphis. 
Care in ventilation, in shading, in watering, in cleansing, are 
four things that require special looking to, if Auriculas are kept 
all the year round in a house with a southern aspect. But of these 
four points, there is, after all, only one (shading) which is not 
part also of the treatment of the Auricula under any circum¬ 
stances. 
As for houses “ expressly built for” such and such plants, there 
is not so very much in it ! I expect that plant houses change their 
trade and tenants much as they do shops, and other human tene¬ 
ments. By little internal arrangements for greater heat or cool¬ 
ness, and the display of what he professionally produces, the 
butcher may follow the baker, and the candlestick maker may 
come after them both. None of my plant houses were “ built ex¬ 
pressly for” anything. They have all changed tenants. The 
present Auricula houses used to be the home of my Peach and 
Nectarine pyramids in pots, and Fig trees dwarf in stature. These 
afterwards removed to the Tulip house, when the Tulips had done 
with it in June, and with the side lights let down, duly ripened 
their fruits, afterwards wintering in the open ground. One of 
my span-roof houses was originally a seminary for young Auriculas ; 
for seedlings were brought up there, but now some of the cool 
Orchids have it, and the seminary is under plain frame lights. So 
also the East Indian and intermediate Orchid house is a mere con¬ 
tinuation of a commonplace-looking structure that I put up for 
odd things in the way of curious or interesting tropical plants. 
Originally there was scarcely an Orchid in it, and now there is 
little els°. 
I have done without much expressiveness in the way of horti¬ 
cultural building. It was robbery by rats, who seriously took to 
stealing my Auriculas out of frames, that led me to think of the 
greater security of a house for them, and to make an experiment 
which I thought would both answer for the plants, and be much 
more convenient for the cultivator. Mr. Ben Simonite and I 
started together to grow Auriculas in houses. Of the plan and its 
safety some doubted, but I believe we were the first to try it. 
Perhaps I may just briefly state this, in case the question should 
ever, at some far-distant day, be thought of floricultural interest 
when none could answer it for certain. Just as, in one of the late 
