1875. ] 
LATE-KEEPING- APPLES 
139 
hold strong opinions'on that point, asserting that no Auricula exhibited at the 
National Exhibition ought to need props and crutches to support it. Mr. Horner 
stated to me that not a flowering-stem of any of his sorts needed tying-up, either 
at home or when shown, and the only florists’ sorts which have a tendency to 
lean over in the stem are Imperator, Blackbird, and Moore’s Violet. Vigour 
appears to be a characteristic of Northern culture—a development that will secure 
a straight stiff stem is arrived at, and they infer, whether justly or unjustly, 
that plants that need supports have either been badly grown, by not being allowed 
air enough (and there the exhibitor deserves to suffer), or they are sorts with 
leggy stems, which is a fault in any variety. A good Auricula should be the 
model of elegance. 
In the North there must be absolute quality in the flowers to entitle them to 
precedence on the exhibition-table. There must be the round flat pip, the clear 
pure golden tube or throat; the body-colour bright, dense, and regular, marked 
as a zone, and not breaking away into the edge, with flashes here and there like 
summer lightning ; the segments beaded on the rim with meal that ought not to 
trespass across the edge ; with a pure paste confined to the limits of the ground¬ 
colour. A large pip finds no favour merely because it is large ; a small one, in¬ 
significant at first sight, but sure to be exquisitely perfect in the possession of 
points of quality, is crowned with glory and honour. 
Not less than five expanded pips are required in all classes for pans, he., where 
two and more flowers are exhibited; and in all the premier classes, where only 
single plants are exhibited, there must not be less than three expanded pips. 
Disbudding and tliinning-out are applied more or less to all flowers intended for 
the exhibition-table, so the Auricula need be no exception. In the South, we 
have become familiar with large and sensational trusses, especially in newer 
varieties, like Colonel Champneys and Charles J. Perry, and mere weight has had a 
certain influence. The Northern grower asserts that trusses may be shown with far 
too much stuff left in them, and that a redundancy of pips only adds useless weight, 
and without it, the truss properly adjusted would have looked no smaller, and 
been far neater, every good pip showing its properties to the eye at once. On 
reflection, there appears to be much force in this, for a large truss gets a huddled 
appearance, many of the pips are much cupped, owing to such a number being 
crowded into a small space, and the aspect is uncouth and inelegant to the culti¬ 
vated eye and taste of a good grower. The distinctness and neatness of each pip 
go farther than mere bulkiness, besides which, a full head of pips is never of 
equal size and properties.—R. Dean, Ealing. 
-A 
P) 
% 
LATE-KEEPING APPLES. 
HE summer and autumn of 1874 were so dry and warm, that they had the 
effect of ripening the late varieties of dessert and kitchen Apples better 
than has been the case for many years past. The soil in the kitchen 
garden here is of a very adhesive nature, with a red clay sub-soil, so that 
n 2 
