114 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ May, 
country the solar rays, even by the aid of artificial means, are not sufficiently 
intense to produce the requisite changes required to solidify the daily deposit of 
tissue. Hence it is that at the end of the growing season such gross wood is left 
improperly matured, over-charged with pith, and prepared to follow the same 
course the succeeding year. 
Finding ourselves so circumstanced, the only certain remedy for checking so 
vigorous a habit, is to lift the plants and introduce less stimulating soil, mixing 
with it brick-bats, chips of the igneous rock, the old or new red sandstone, 
giving, at the same time, a liberal supply of crushed bones. Unless in cases of 
extreme poverty, I advise never to use farmyard manure, as ultimately it renders 
the entire bulk of soil tough and spongy, producing a peculiar acid hurtful to 
the roots. I strongly believe in having a constant control of stimulants at my 
own disposal, and so prefer to apply them in a liquid form, and this practice I 
advocate. 
Wherever an excess of pith exists, we can hardly hope to succeed, under the 
most intelligent and painstaking management, in producing anything approaching 
to a satisfactory crop of grapes, even if the effort does not prove altogether a 
failure. The bunches, as a rule, start from the sixth joint, grow to an immoderate 
length, are exceedingly feeble, and as a consequence, the shoulders are set far apart, 
producing a straggling habit, which is retained to the last. Neither do the 
berries colour properly. No doubt there are various causes why grapes shank, 
but none, I believe, is so potent as imperfectly ripened wood, and yet it is seldom 
referred to.— Alexander Cramb, Tortworth. 
THE NATIONAL SOUTHERN AURICULA SHOW. 
HE recent effort made in the South to revive the public interest in 
Auriculas, by an attempt to get together a show worthy of the name, has 
been crowned with success, so far, at least, as the exhibition itself was 
concerned. The show, which took place on the 24th ult. at the Crystal 
Palace, was, in fact, the grandest display of these interesting, old-fashioned 
flowers which has ever been held in London or elsewhere, thanks to the in¬ 
defatigable exertions of the Secretary, Mr. E, S. Dodwell, and the hearty sup¬ 
port of the Rev. F. D. Horner, S. Cooper, Esq., and Mr. B. Simonite, in the North, 
and of Mr. C. Turner and Mr. J. Douglas, in the South. Owing to the backw-ard 
season, several of the Northern growers who would have been present were unable 
to compete, but as it Avas, there was a large competition, and the flowers staged 
by Mr. Horner in particular Avere splendid examples of successful cultivation , 
brought out to the very day by means of judicious covering and by many a long 
night-watch. 
We give below a record of the principal collections and specimens exhibited : 
Class A. Twelve dissimiliar varieties. —1st; The Rev. F. D. Horner, Kirkby- 
Malzeard, Ripon, with John Simonite (Walker), Alderman Charles E. BroAvn 
(Headly), Smiling Beauty .(ILap), Pizarro (Campbell), Champion (Page), Ann 
