1877.] 
THE AURICULA.—CHAPTER XIY. 
273 
was long since published by Dr. Mueller, in his Fragmenta Phgtographicu Australi(s^ 
under the name now adopted for garden use.—T. Moore. 
THE AURICULA. 
Chapter XIV.—Eecollections op the Home Bloom.—Notes by the Way. 
NCE again, we florists have enjoyed the round of all our flowers, and the 
floral year, that was young with the Auricula, is now passing away, in a 
green old age, bright to the last, with the Chrysanthemum—a favourite 
that well deserves its name of “ Golden Flower,” if only for bringing us 
such an unforced wealth of beauty when, on the beds and borders, leaves are 
fallen and flowers gone ; and “ the last rose of summer,” perhaps, was but a poor 
bud cankered at the core ; and while in the wider garden of the landscape, the 
grassy fields are faded, the stubbles stained and rotting in the rain, and the woods 
all bare, but for the dark foliage of heavily-plumed flrs that stand stiff and silent, 
like mutes in deep mourning, for the death that is all around. 
These two distant flowers, the Auricula and Chrysanthemum, I couple 
together for the moment, because of the specially tender regard we must feel for 
them, as appearing, the one long before, and the other long after, the full bloom 
of summer ; even as, of all the stars that shine, we love that most which is the 
first to twinkle after sunset, and the last to fade out of the morning sky. 
To travel back in thought to see the Auriculas in bloom, of which I have 
written aforetime here, let us choose a bright morning towards the end of April, 
and an early hour, while the red sun is yet entangled in the tree tops of the 
wood that affords me a most welcome shelter from the bitterness of north-east 
winds. 
The shadows are very long among the gravestones in the quiet old church¬ 
yard close by, and the dew sparkles on the sunny strips between, as if rainbows 
also were laid peacefully to rest in the springing grass. 
Notes of singing-birds come from the wood and adjacent trees ; and if you 
will open your window by five o’clock, it is amusing to hear them beginning 
with the dawn, each with just a short low note under his breath, as if they were 
the instrumentalists in an orchestra, and this the cautious tuning-up! Add to 
these melodies the call of the cuckoo, newly come, and the chattering of many 
sparrows, as of an ill-behaved audience, and you have the wild bird music of the 
morning in the country at “ Auricula time.” 
The plants we shall find in their half sunk blooming house with a Southern 
aspect; and the air is cool and moist, and laden with the gathered perfumes of 
the night. The blooms themselves have a tender sweetness as of pansies mixed 
with violets, and the fresh foliage of many varieties is also scented—some like 
violets, and that of others like russia leather. Strangers, unaccustomed to such 
colours and combinations of them as the Auricula presents, look with ever grow¬ 
ing wonder as the eye becomes gradually educated to the delicate and subtle 
