180 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
t August, 
thread, which immediately hardens and becomes a stiff and permanent bristle ; at 
the extremity of this she affixes an egg, and then repeats the process, until there 
are six or eight of these eggs standing side by side, each on the tip of a long 
bristle. The little grub in due time breaks its eggshell, and emerges from its 
prison-house in the form of a very minute lizard, with six legs instead of four, a 
distinct head and neck, and a pair of curved and sharp-pointed jaws; these jaws, 
although wide apart at the base, yet by means of their curved form meet at the 
tips, and thus constitute a pair of most formidable and effective pincers for worry¬ 
ing the little gooseberry-grubs, which make their first appearance about the same 
time. Then follows a repetition of the old story of the young wolf-cubs and the 
lambs—at first all is serenity, a state of peace ; but both very soon get hungry, 
and then the grubs devour the gooseberry-leaves, and the lizard-like larvae of the 
lace-wings devour the grubs. 
My tale is utilitarian. If you would protect your Gooseberry and Currants 
from the grub, first bring toads into your garden; secondly, tread the earth hard 
under the bushes; and thirdly, never kill a lace-wing fly.— Edward Newman, 
York Grove , Peckham. 
ALPINE AURICULAS. 
"HAT is the dividing-line between a Self and an Alpine Auricula ? I 
think it would be very difficult to set it forth from a botanical point of 
view, but the Auricula fancier (and that his species may propagate itself 
rapidly, is my earnest aspiration) has his line of difference set forth 
clearly enough to answer his purpose, and mere botanical distinctions, as such, 
trouble him not at all. The Self Auricula must have its body-colour or marginal 
colour extending from the circumference of the paste to that of the pip, and there 
must be no ascending or descending scale of perceptible shade. That the absence of 
shade indicates the presence of quality, is antithetically true, all other properties 
being equal. In the Alpine Auricula the opposite prevails, for the leading pro¬ 
perty—some term it the first property—is the shaded petal, a dark colour paling 
off to a lighter one, and the more richly shaded the body-colour is the better. 
Then, whether the centre be white or cream-wliite, or yellow or custard-yellow, 
it must be entirely free from that meal or paste so much prized in the Show 
varieties, and which must be present in a true Self Auricula. The two cannot be 
botanically separated, when one comes to consider it, for seed saved from true 
Alpine Auriculas—true in the florists’ acceptation of the term—will throw 
decided Self Auriculas with the unshaded body-colour and mealy centre. 
More than that: the Rev. F. D. Horner informed me some time since, that 
seed saved from the choicest edged varieties will produce true Alpines, not¬ 
withstanding not an Alpine flower had been suffered to come near them at the 
time of blooming. 
In the report of the recent Exhibition of the National Auricula Society, held 
at Manchester in April last, which appeared in the Gardeners’ Chronicle , it was 
