186 
THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ August, 
appear to be now a clear marcb ahead, for they are fast established, and able to 
go on with all the ease of feeling perfectly at home. 
One objection put forth against early potting is that before the next bloom 
the soil will have grown impoverished by repeated waterings, but this disturb¬ 
ing vision only haunts the dreamy sleep of theory ; it is no reality in the open, 
living day of practice, and it implies an amount of water-treatment such as 
Auriculas never want. 
As they start into growth, they may be watered more freely again, but always 
with moderation, and a feeling of relief when a break in the weather, or dull 
quiet days, lessening evaporation, make this duty light. Attend to perfect 
cleanliness from green-fly ; still watch for mischievous maggot at the heart, and 
hatching of green caterpillars from eggs, which perhaps some thoughtless butter¬ 
fly, in mistaken kindness, has placed here, instead of upon the cabbages. Clean 
the pots from green slime, and keep the soil sweet by light stirrings, so that 
neither weeds nor moss can grow. 
Auriculas are propagated by offsets, for more stock of existing varieties, and 
by seed for hopes of new and better ones. There are several types or forms of 
increase by young plants,—first, the sucker thrown up from below, and born 
like a foal, long in the leg ; next, the offset proper, formed on the neck of the 
plant, or sometimes between the foliage near the crown, where such offspring is 
often very stout and succulent; and lastly, by natural division of the heart into 
two or more heads. 
Of all these forms of increase, the sucker is much to be preferred. It is 
ready to take off as soon as it possesses two or three leaves, and is often found 
ready-rooted ; while even if it is not, the stem is very kindly, and soon strikes, 
and the little thing soon grows on into a plant. 
The neck offset is fit for removal as soon as it has lost a leaf or two, and has 
thereby a slight neck or heel, from which it will root. 
Thick offsets at the crown must be left till they are similarly ready, by 
which time they are often rather large, with perhaps a root. 
Where the heart has split, I wait till I can cut each division off with a 
rooted portion of the old stem, when they grow on as independent plants, that 
will do well when they get established with roots from their own particular stem. 
Old-school growers recommended fixed times, such as spring and autumn, for 
removal of offsets. This, however, is rather a slow-train rule, involving some 
delay, some loss of power to the mother-plant, whose resources are drawn upon 
by large unweaned offspring; and a loss of opportunity to the young plant itself, 
which may be suffering from being drawn up under the shade of parental foliage, 
and which in all respects gets on better alone, when once fit to make its own way 
in the vegetable world. Unrooted offsets may be struck in the same soil as the 
old plants grow in, and are fond of being round the sides of small pots. They 
should be kept in a moist growing atmosphere, with allowance of air when the 
wind is down, and at night the benefit of the dew* 
