268 
THE FLORIST. 
cultivators, and I shall be more than satisfied if my remarks cause them 
to revel more in the sweets of their Roses. In connection with perfume 
I must not omit to allude to a more material point, the extract or attar 
of Roses. The petals of the Rose are beautiful objects viewed under 
the microscope; their little vesicles of highly volatile essential oil, which 
secrete the scent, are distinctly visible. The glands on the foliage of the 
Sweet Briar and sepals of the Moss Rose are very interesting objects. It 
is a singular fact that our splendid double Damask and Tea Roses will 
not produce the attar like the semi-double Roses of Persia and India. 
This- is clearly attributable to the greater heat of their climate ripening, 
if I may so term it, or secreting from the petals more of the essential 
oil of Roses. 
Ashburton, South Devon. H. Curtis. 
CHRONICLES OF A SMALL GARDEN.—No. XI. 
A writer in “ Blackwood’s Magazine,” reviewing lately Mr. Buck- 
land’s interesting “ Curiosities of Natural History,” refers to a state¬ 
ment of the author’s (who, in. giving a glowing eulogy on the Rat, 
states that he is writing at the moment with one sitting on his table), 
and says—“ Surely if ever man wrote under the inspiration of his sub¬ 
ject, Mr. Buckland does.” In writing a few more words of the Auricula, 
let me say I am much in the same condition. I have not, indeed, a 
Chapman’s Maria or Smith’s Lycurgus on the table beside me ; but 
after having a good run through the new bedding things at the Slough 
nursery (of which I may have a word or two to say by and bye), I am 
now sitting in a quiet country vicarage in Norfolk, where the Auricula 
is “ done ” in thorough good style—not as my old man did mine— 
and where, having gone over with its proprietor his excellent and 
healthy stock of plants, examined his frames,* and means and appli¬ 
ances, I am now looking out on his pretty Grass garden, as the rays of 
the evening sun are falling aslant on its varied beauties, while' the 
tower of the old church, gray with age, reminding one of days gone by, 
adds its beauty to the scene, and one cannot refrain from saying, what 
centres of civilisation and good these quiet homes of our rural clergy 
may be, and, in the vast majority of cases, are. My friend calls his a 
small garden; to mine, it is as Olympus to a molehill; and as far as 
Auriculas are concerned, unquestionably he ought to be the writer, not 
I. However, as I have undertaken it I must e’en go on with it, and 
give, not for such experienced growers, but for young beginners, a 
few practical hints. And let me say something as to the constitution of 
this plant. There is a great mistake made, which often brings the 
growers of this flower to grief, viz., that because it is originally an 
inhabitant of alpine summits, that therefore it is hardy, and capable of 
bearing cold and bad treatment. Such persons forget two very simple 
* I hope the friend with whom I am staying may be induced to send you an 
account and drawing of his Auricula stages, which are the most perfect things 
of the kind I have ever seen. (See p. 281 .) 
