THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ December, 
270 
I know; but these notes, with what else I may have to say, will be long enough 
for the present. It will be better to keep details of other good Auriculas for 
another time, if it be of sufficient use and interest to write them.* 
The season since the bloom has been a curious one. We have gained a closer ^ 
acquaintance with that unpleasant insect, the mealy aphis, and he seems anxious 
to make himself as much at home with us as our old friend, the green-fly. Of 
the two the old is better, because more easily despatched. The difficulty with 
the wooll}'’ one is to get him wet through—a material that would turn water as 
well as his coat, and be withal so perfectly self-ventilating, would be a fortune to the 
discoverer! He is a very sluggish and dirty insect, and if the plants are allowed 
to get some neck fibres dry and exposed, he is almost sure to set up an establish¬ 
ment among them, with branch establishments below. 
The autumn growth has been remarkable for its slow and quiet nature. I 
have hardly had one per cent, of autumn blooms among the blooming stock. Even 
the seedlings have been so undemonstrative, that my friend, Ben Simonite, and I, 
who exchange letters over Auricula blooms with almost the fearful rapidity and 
ferocity of lovers, have had unnatural intervals of torpidity ! 
There has been good root-action in the cool, moist summer, and most of the 
plants here are growing more at the late period I am writing at, than they have 
done in the seasonable months of September and October. However, there is no 
danger now of trusses getting too forward, and the growth is confined to the 
making up of fat hearts. 
Caterpillars have abounded, but not the maggot that bores down into the 
heart. Indeed Mr. Simonite’s seedlings in one house were so locusted by the 
former, that I believe he could have accepted an alternative of a charge of snipe- 
shot to be fired into them as the lesser of two evils, with a feeling of relief \ 
However, continual painstaking saved the sufferers. 
The plants may any time now sink to rest, and while they sleep it will be our 
work to see what fitting reception can be prepared for them in public at blooming 
time. Meanwhile, it is cheering to hope that as soon as winter is gone, we shall 
meet again those warm, far-separated friends to whom Flora’s garland has bound 
us in such cherished fellowship.—F. D. Horner, Kirhhy Malzeard^ Itipon. 
STORING SOIL FOR POTTING. 
' S this is the season when a supply of good turfy soil lor potting purposes 
is required to be got in for storing, it may be noted that in most places 
there is great difficulty in procuring it. Gardeners in numerous instances 
have to put up with most unreasonable shifts in getting a supply, although 
they are expected to produce first-rate plants and fruits in due season. The fine 
“ turfy loam ” and “ fibry peat ” has often to be procured by stealth, and this 
[* As assuredly it is.—E d.] 
