1877 . ] 
THE AURICULA.-CHAPTER XII. 
75 
are to assist the bloom. Care must be taken to afford these important roots 
every advantage. See that they are not washed bare, or suffered to die back from 
want of earth at starting. In the Polyanthus the whole well-being of the plant 
depends upon the encouragement given to these neck-roots, and in the Auricula, 
also, they are of very great moment. The supply of air must be the freest pos¬ 
sible, and then the quick-growing foliage, and the rapidly-rising stems will 
harden as they grow, and the plant will keep its natural, self-supporting habit. 
If in doubt about the wind, whether too rough, or cold, or not, it is best to be 
on the safe side, and protect the plants. Perhaps some of the ventilators open 
on the lee of the wind, or shading material to break the force of it can be 
arranged, as in my own case, to protect the openings and riddle the wind. 
Another most important step towards securing a fine bloom is the timely and 
judicious thinning of the pips. Nearly every Auricula, large or small, will give 
more pips than it can properly, 2 .e., completely and uniformly, expand. It is as 
unwise to leave a large truss of Auriculas unthinned as to leave every berry 
on a bunch of grapes. There is even no gain upon the whole in size, but much 
confusion and inequality. From five to eleven fiat, distinct, and equal pips 
are a better show in every way than a crushed-up ball, where hardly a 
blossom stands out conspicuously as it should do, in all its outlines. Thin¬ 
ning-out must be a daily amusement, a gradual operation among the 
plants, and gradual, too, as regards each plant. There is some responsibility in 
choosing what pips shall stand, and the best cannot with certainty be picked out 
when the operation first becomes beneficial, which is as soon as the pips can 
easily be separated, and worked among with a pair of narrow scissors. The 
small central pips, and such as may be laid underneath the larger ones, will be 
the weakest both in size and properties. 
In the edged flowers, pips thus placed will often be too heavy in body-colour, and 
correspondingly deficient in edge. There is also a tendency among the green-edges 
to throw meal on the edge of the innermost pips—a fault against one of their 
highest properties—purity. Innermost pips may, therefore, as a rule, be cut out. 
Be very certain that you have only one little neck within the clip of the 
scissors, or to your blank dismay, two heads may fall instead of one; a small in¬ 
accuracy may bring about this catastrophe. Pulling pips out is not always safe ; 
if the direction of the pull is not perpendicular to the set of the pip, several buds 
may be torn off with it whose foot-stalks lie close by. There may be a violently 
disproportionate leading pip, or one with an oval turn and an inclination to cor¬ 
pulence, evidently more or less a double pip. Such should be removed, for the 
relief of the regular ones. 
Even pips of every promise in the folded bud may yet prove faulty inside. 
There may be a hare-lipped tube, or some serious flaw in the paste. For instance, 
in Pizarro, richest of brown seifs, and such a round serene flower, there are often 
yellow round spots in the paste quite bare of meal. In Page’s Champion, a most 
delicious emerald green-edge, there will occur rents in the paste, where the petal 
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