May 16, 1889. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
393 
bare already contemplated it. In my opinion, apart from my 
experience, there is no dearth of suitable plants, provided the place 
for them is properly constructed. — E. Jenkins. 
AURICULAS 130 YEARS AGO. 
An old volume on gardening, published in Edinburgh in 1764, 
recently came into my hands. It is entitled “ The British 
■Gardeners’ Director," by James Justice, F.R.S., one of the prin¬ 
cipal Clerks of Session. What chiefly attracted my attention in it 
was an article of nine pages on “Auricula Ursi, or Boar’s Ear.” 
Being myself an Auricula grower I was naturally interested in 
knowing the mode of cultivation adopted by growers of the 
flowers 130 years ago. Mr. Justice writes with great intelligence, 
and gives minute instructions as to the culture of the then 
favourite Auricula. He claims for it a high place among florist 
flowers “ for its incomparable variety, and its ever green leaves.” 
He states that the flower was formerly the pride of English 
gardeners, and to such perfection had they brought it that he had 
known a single plant of a good new seedling sold for 70 guineas, 
and he offers to sell well rooted plants from 2s. Gd. to 5 guineas 
each. The Dutch florists seem to have been the principal 
"traders in Auriculas at that time, having sent to England for the 
•best varieties, from which they raised many admirable flowers. 
'They divided their Auriculas into two sorts, seifs and painted soits. 
The catalogues of Auriculas then seemed to vary much every year, 
and the English catalogues added the names of the raisers, but un¬ 
fortunately not a single name of an Auricula is given in all the 
•article. The characteristics of a good Auricula, however, according 
te the best judges, are given as follows :—“ A good Auricula must 
have a strong erect stem, short pendicles or footstalks ; bright, 
glowing, well-shaped colours in the seifs, and those of different 
colours or painted ones being well and distinctly marked with 
■round, florid, large eyes, together with well expanded bells, which 
anust not crowd upon one another, but must show themselves dis¬ 
tinctly, with a handsome narrow funnel, enclosing well propor¬ 
tioned stamina.” 
To obtain all these qualities Mr. Justice says careful culture is 
required, and that he could obtain them he asserts, and states that 
his blow of Auriculas in the spring of 1762 “ exceeded all the blows 
of any Auriculas ever seen in Scotland, in England, or in Europe.” 
His collection was composed of the “ most capital flowers in 
England and Holland, and some very fine new seedlings of his own 
raising.” The soil he recommends does not differ much from that 
used nowadays, but it would seem that fuller’s earth was added in 
the proportion of an eighth to the soil for top-dressing in spring. 
The best time for getting and potting plants at that time was con¬ 
sidered to be the 12th of August, and as soon as the plants arrived 
they were to be turned out of their pots, their roots were to be 
trrimmed, all dead ones cut off, the long ones shortened, and the old 
earth washed c’ean from them. To see that the plant was sound 
a little was to be cut off the extremity of the stem, and if it was 
white "without any yellow or brown spots in it all was right. In 
one respect the potting then differed from the present practice. 
The pot was put in a vessel of water half way up its sides, and 
when the water showed on the top of the earth the pot and plant 
were set in the shade for a month, and kept moist, though not wet. 
If the plants showed autumn blooms the stem was allowed to run 
up to its height, and then it was to be nipped off just below their 
flower buds, but this was not to be done before the new heart was 
seen rising by the side of the flower stem. In September the old 
plants, offsets, and seedlings were repotted, and the whole plants 
ware placed in their winter quarters, called shades and bunkers, on the 
20th of October. Their winter treatment was very much the same 
as we now practise, but frames and glass have taken the place of 
shades and bunkers. This old book fixes a point from which we 
<srn mark the progress made in the cultivation and improvement of 
the Auricula, but it is a disappointment to the reader that no names 
of varieties then grown are given. 
Since writing the above, in which I have expressed my disappoint¬ 
ment that Mr. Justice gave no list of varieties then grown by himself 
or others, I have been enabled to supply his omission through the 
kindness of my friend, the Rev. H. H. D'Ombrain, an Auricula 
grower for fifty years. He has sent me a manuscript list of a col¬ 
lection grown by one whose initials are “ T. S ,” and the date 
March 23rd, 1744, twenty years before the date of Mr. Justice’s 
book. My friend writes me that he received the list from an old 
Auricula grower who knew Page, a butcher at Islington, and the 
raiser of several varieties sent out before 1820, which have kept 
their places honourably for at least seventy years. His Champion, 
Waterloo, and Duchess of Oldenburg are in many collections, and I 
am glad to sly they are in my own. The list sent me is very 
curious and worth preserving, and perhaps some Auricula grower 130 
years hence may refer to it, as well as to a list of plants grown now, 
and wonder what each was like. It will be noticed that there is 
not a single name in it now known to us at the present day. This 
will be less wondered at when I mention that in Hogg’s “ Treatise 
on Flowers,” published in 1820, there is a list of 107 varieties grown 
at that time, and so far as my knowledge goes only thirty of these 
are in cultivation now. Will it be that fifty years hence our Light- 
body, Acme, Blackbird, Glory, Hero, Smiling Beauty, Duke of 
Argyll, Heroine, John Simonite, Colonel Taylor, Prince of Greens, 
F. D. Horner, Lovely Ann, and many other gems will be also un¬ 
known ? So far as I know Gorton’s Stadtholder, yellow self, and 
Hughes’ Pillar of Beauty, white edge, raised in 1783 and 1785, are 
the two oldest flowers now in cultivation, and on account of their 
antiquity I would not willingly lose them. 
Several causes contribute to the extinction of varieties. Many 
run after the newest kinds and discard the old ; superior new 
varieties naturally displace inferior ones of the same class ; delicacy 
of constitution sends some kinds out of existence ; some varieties 
never increase much, and consequently soon disappear ; and many 
will only grow the varieties that will take prizes at shows, and thu3 
limit the demand for kinds otherwise good, though not up to compej 
tition standard. But the true lover of the flower has a deep affection 
for the old favourites, though they may want a point or two to 
make them perfect, and his collection contains many lovely sorts 
not to be seen in that of the runner after new things. The list I 
have mentioned is as follows, and the names are evidently given in 
the order in which the plants sat in the shade or bunker of those 
days:— 
Arethusa 
Cleone X 
2 Seedlings from Sarum, 1742 
Dulcinea X . . . . 
King of Prussia 
C : W : S : 1728 
Gustavus Adolphus 
S : Sarum, 1742 
Elvira 
Northern Lass 
Painted Bride 
Dorinda 
C: W: S: 17 
2 C : W : S : 
Old King of Prussia 
Glory of England X . . . . 
C : W : S : 
Charles TIL of Spain x 
Maiden Queen 
Hubert’s Seedling 
A : P : 
6 C : W : S : 
Mr. Gough 
Driver’s King 
Upton’s Seedling 
Ld. Willoughby X . . 
Dutchman 
Duke of Gloucester’s Star 
Duke of Leeds 
The lacker 
Mr. Marcham 
How’s Seedling 
Duke of Richmond 
Glory of the East X 
Duke of Savoy X . . . . 
Semiramis 
Ld. Leinster 
Bp. of London X lost 
Tiberius 
Witch of Endor 
Savage’s Alexander 
Dunkirk X. 
Queen Dowager 
The Sultana 
Pompey 
Sir Robt. Walpole X . . 
Fetter’s King 
Savages S : X. 
Fairy Queen 
Ld. Letchmere 
Quadruple Alliance 
X Mrs. Savery 
Nelson’s Glory 
Glory of Holland X 
Holt’s Widow X 
Welton’s fine S : 
Caius Marius 
T. S , March 23rd, 1744. 
It will be noticed that in the list ten raisers’ names are given, 
and it is evident from the other names that many of the plants 
had come from Holland I suppose the crosses and dots had the 
same significance then as they have now ; the cross denoting 
quality, and the dots representing the number of plants of the 
same variety. The S. means seedling. The list does not distin¬ 
guish the seifs from the painted varieties, but one, the Painted 
Bride, must have been an edged flower. In Hogg’s book, as in 
Mr. Justice’s, Auriculas are divided into two classes only, plain or 
self-coloured and painted or variegated, but the last are stated to 
“ consist of three varieties, distinguished from each other by the 
colour of the edges or margin of the petals, which is green, grey, 
and white.” The division into the four distinct classes of seifs, 
green, grey, and white edges must have been made further down 
the century.—J. M., Dundee. 
LADY DOWNE’S GRAPE SCALDING. 
In reply to “J. H. A.’s” query as above (page 384) permit me to 
give my experience. I cannot fairly say I have always been successful 
in preventing scalding, as in some seasons like 1888 when the weather 
was so very erratic it was almo-t impossible to entirely prevent a few 
terries getting damaged. Still, having grown a house of this good late 
