1877 .] 
THE AURICULA.-CHAPTER XI. 
03 
proved, and all tliat is necessary is to bring to perfection tlieir employment in 
agriculture, wliieli can only be accomplished by the intelligence and practical 
knowledge of the vine-grower. 
Mr. W. Thomson has suggested that as some of the American foxy Vines are 
said to resist the attacks of the insect, it would, if this could be verified, be worth 
while to grow such Vines as Vitis Lahrusca^ V. rotundifulia^ or any other that 
might be found to be proof against the attacks of the pest, and inarch our own 
Vines on them. One certain way of getting at the truth, he remarks, would be 
to plant a Vine infested with the insect in a box, or pot, with one or other of 
these American Vines, and in the course of one season the proof either way would 
be absolute. 
As one means of doing battle with the Phjlloxera^ M. Sabate has devised, and 
exhibited before the Horticultural Society of France, a gauntlet of chain armour 
to be used for removing the bark of the Vines, and with it the winter eggs of 
the pest. Though the sulpho-carbonates have proved useful when applied to 
the roots, it is necessary to attack the enemy in the cracks of the bark also, and 
for this purpose the rods are drawn through the gloved hand, with the result of 
removing the old bark and the insects. The glove might also be used for the 
removal of moss from the bark of trees, and for other purposes. 
THE AURICULA. 
Chapter XI.—The Rising Bloom.—Spring Treatment of Old Plants and 
Seedlings. 
,^HEN I was a boy (which begins to look something like “ Auld lang 
^' syne,” now that I have hardly a birthday left on the green and sunny 
side of “ forty year it was a pleasant illusion to turn pocket-money 
into exceeding small change. There was so much of it—quite a fortune 
if you only went by weight, and did not think of the colour. 
But there is much that we do not care to have in a diffused and voluminous 
form. As horticulturists, we have not enjoyed our winter, with so very much 
water in it. We should have liked it stiffer, with here and there a spell of 
silvery frost, instead of that heavy equivalent, that “ small change ” in wind and 
water, which has proved so bulky and incommodious. 
Only once in this almost frostless winter have I seen the Auriculas frozen in 
their pots, and that but slightly for a day or two while they were fast asleep. 
The weather ever since has left it perfectly open to them to begin their spring 
life at any time, and of course, they have taken the very earliest opportunit}^, 
and are now decidedly forward. An early start is everything for the later sorts, 
among -which many of our best Auriculas are to be found. If stiff-petalled and 
slowly-opening varieties, which George IJghthodg and Lancashire Hero may 
represent, are long held back by a cold season, they will have a short and hurried 
bloom that shows signs of having missed the height of the season. 
As “ the cuckoo in June is out of tune,” so Auriculas in May make a poor 
