November 12, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
419 
All the zones of colour on a pip should be well balanced. 
That is the idea of the proportion they should occupy on the 
flower. The eye can quic ly tell if one zone or another trespass 
beyond its limits or fall short of them. 
The full culture of this fascinating flower might be tedious 
to enter into here where so many of my hearers will not be 
Auricula growers 
I will therefore confine my remarks on this head within, I 
hope, convenient bounds. 
The plant is perfectly hardy against cold, and all the pro¬ 
tection we give it is either to keep off wet at unseasonable times, 
or to prevent its delicately constituted flowers from being ruined 
by weather, wind, and insects, such as bees. 
It rests in winter and in summer, and grows most actively 
when the days are lengthening and shortening. 
As to situation, I grow it in a south aspect from October to 
May, and in a northern one from May to October. 
As a plant requiring but a small pot it is of course easily 
handled. Three-inch to 41-inch pots will grow all in a collection. 
Do not be dismayed at anything you may have heard about 
composts. There still lives in history the story of one who tried 
Auriculas in so many curious composts that the neighbours 
comp'ained of the nuisance his raw materials were 
Som one suggested that he might keep a few geese—that 
would be profitable both for table and garden uses, goose drop¬ 
pings being one of the less noisome ingredients for Auricula 
composts. However one morning the geese got out into the 
garden and among th j Auriculas. There was soon not one of 
them left, and so instead of being a means to an end they were 
the end of his means ! 
I have found very simple natural composts grow Auriculas 
well. I have never used a richer than equal parts of turfy loam, 
leaf mould, and sand (rough), or stiff loam,old hotbed,and sand; 
often kitchen garden soil, leaf mould, and sand. 
I think the plants like firm potting, and certainly abundant 
drainage and charcoal in the soil if it be extra heavy. I always 
repot my plants “early”— i.e., just after the bloom, and in 
summer keep them cool and moist; in winter airy and compara¬ 
tively dry. But they must have no coddling or be left to pine for 
fresh air. The staple enemy they have in the way of insects is 
green fly, and we are never at peace with him. 
Offsets I take off, as they can be removed with any heel to 
them. Those only thus fit after October I preferably leave till 
the spring start in Febi-uary. They need not be rooted at the 
time of separation. Seed I have sown any time between ripening 
and the following spring. It is very irregular in coming up, and 
I have young plants still appearing in a pan that will have been 
sown three years ago next spring. 
If there is a plant that will thrive under difficulties of town 
life the Auricula is one, though of course, like all others, it 
prefers the country light and air. 
I fear 1 hive undertaken to say more than time permits me 
to say thoroughly. 1 am conscious of having grown rather 
sketchy in this paper, but I had rather disappoint you with too 
little than weaiy you with too much. 
The one fault coaid be remedied if need were; the other not. 
POTATOES. 
“ Country Gardener’s ” exceedingly pertinent remarks in the 
leader of 15th October point to the desirability of information as to 
the various properties of these noted prizetakers which year by year 
come before the public with their dainty proportions, but which, as 
he remarks, are doing so little for the public weal. Productiveness 
with quality are, he says, the essentials for the national food supply. 
To these qualifications I would add another too much overlooked— 
viz., relative exhaustion of the soil, and to this the weight of market¬ 
able tubers to be derived from a like number of picked shaws grown 
in proximity. The mere production of huge show Potatoes is of 
little importance if uneatable. 
Unsuccessful as a contributor to the Chiswick experimental 
efforts, I have been led to consider the properties of my seedlings re¬ 
latively to the field sorts most in vogue around in this the cradle of 
the famed Champions, the coast of Forfarshire. 
In 1878 seeds were gathered from my own garden and the fields 
around, the parentage being Regents, Victorias, Dalmahoys, 
Champions, and many garden sorts. In 1879 the produce indicated 
the usual endless varieties of habit of growth, &c. About fifty 
varieties commenced with have been weeded down year by year to a 
dozen sorts. Finding, however, in Early Sandringham all I desire 
for an earliest crop, only three of the numerous kidneys are retained, 
and for several years the others have grown into field cultivation 
alongside Champions, Reading Heroes, Dalmahoys, and Magnums. 
This district exports extensively to London and the southern ports, 
especially in spring and early summer ; hence, good keeping sorts 
titled for use from March to June are of importance. In my 
selection the qualifications sought are full croppers (by weight), good 
boiling and keeping, moderate haulms, not unduly exhausting and 
clean lifting. All boil equally as well as the above standard sorts, but 
some of them possess the superior flavour of early days (1830 to 1840) 
long before disease was heard of. 1 am able only to give a tabulated 
statement of the past two years’ produce relatively to that of the 
standard sorts. It points to the peculiarity of this hard dry summer 
in its sparser productiveness, and is otherwise instructive in that some 
sorts have been more affected by it than others. 
Five picked shaws of each kind in 1884 and 1885 weighed as 
follows field culture) :— 
Magnums Dalmahoys Beading Heroes Champions 
1884 
9 lbs - 
— 
10£ lbs 
1885 
7£ lbs 7J lbs 
7J lbs 
8& lbs 
Seedlings (cultivated since 1879). 
No. 
15 18 20 23 
27 28 34 
37 39 
1884 8h lbs 9 lbs 9£ lbs 10 lbs 9 lbs 8 lbs 7 lbs 9 lbs 12 lbs 
1885 7 lbs 7f lbs 10£ lbs 9& lbs 8J lbs 7 lbs 8 lbs 9£ lbs 8f lbs 
The appearance of Magnums and Heroes was all that could be 
desired, while yet the weights were disappointing, and it may be 
found their displacement is excessive relatively to other sorts. 
Champions for the past two years have produced an over-proportion 
of small sizes, while the haulms of these three standard sorts are very 
heavy and hence exhausting. This property is avoided in the above 
seedlings ; several of them are almost evergreen, being still green at 
this date (30th October), and yet they boil well. Potatoes of sorts 
are like Strawberries of sorts, they have their preference of habitat.— 
R. B., Inchbrayock , Montrose. 
THE PRIMULAS. 
C Continued from page 397.) 
P. elatior, Jacq., the Oxlip.—Accepting this plant in the 
restricted sense it is comparatively rarely seen in gardens at present, 
although it is pretty common in copses and meadows in Cambridge, 
Suffolk, Essex, &c. It may be best described as intermediate 
between the common Primrose and the Cowslip or Paigle, and 
hybrids between the two latter species much resemble and are not 
always readily distinguished from typical P. elatior, which is also by 
many considered a hybrid, and in a broad sense one of the many links 
between the two species. The chief differences between P. elatior 
and P. vulgaris are the former’s less inflated calyx, shorter stalks, 
and inodorous flowers, and from P. veris in the colour of its flowers, 
&c. It has been much confused, and the names by which it has at 
various times been known would almost fill a page. The following 
are a few of the principal :—P. carpathica, Fuss. ; P. Fluggeana, 
Lehm. ; P. montana, Opinz. ; P. Pallasii, Lehm. ; P. intricata var. 
carpathica, Fuss. ; P. Perreiniana, Flugge ; P. alpestris, Schur. ; 
P. inodora, Hffmog. ; P. laterifolia, Goup., dec. It flowers in April 
and May, and may be readily established on slopes on the rockery, 
where its pretty drooping flowers are exceedingly pretty. 
P. farinosa, L. — The Bird’s-eye Primrose is a native of our 
island, though not by any means plentiful unless in one or two 
localities, the other stations being local. It has been long cultivated 
in English gardens, but with varying success ; indeed in growing 
and flowering it well depends chiefly on the care and attention 
bestowed upon it. It is by no means a strongly constitutioned 
plant, and it requires to be watched through the winter, as it is 
liable to damp in low places. A perennial in nature, it will be 
found advisable in some localities to treat it as a biennial, that being 
the course adopted with great success in the case of the Scotch 
variety, P. scotica, Hook. To get seeds, however, is often another 
trouble, for even this tiny plant is not free from the ravages of a 
disease. It attacks the seed vessels, which on being collected will 
be found full of a smut caused by a fungus called Urocystis primu- 
licola. When such is found to be the case the plants should be at 
once destroyed, for though there is no record of the disease attack¬ 
ing other Primulas there is always a danger while such a scourge is 
in the neighbourhood of the others, and the safest means is to burn 
the affected plants. 
P. farinosa I have found to do best in a bog in rich peaty soil, 
keeping up the supply by means of seedlings, never depending 
much on the plants flowering a second year, although we have no 
doubt in favourable localities they will continue flowering for some 
years. It grows from 4 to 9 inches in height, carrying a head of 
pretty rosy purple yellow-eyed flowers, the tints varying much on 
the different plants. The leaves are obovate spathulate, crenated 
at the margins, glabrous, and covered with a white or sulphur- 
coloured meal. It flowers in June and July, and is found in bogs 
and meadows in Carnarvon, north of England, and Peebles, ascend¬ 
ing to 1800 feet. P. farinosa var. scotica, Hook., though quoted q 
