Plate 300 . 
ALPINE AUBICULA, YICTGBIOTTS. 
The class of Auriculas commonly designated Alpines is not 
in much repute amongst connoisseurs, and indeed some of our 
very best growers will not admit them into their collection, for 
fear of lowering the quality of the seed; for being much more 
hardy than the florists’ favourites, their pollen is much more 
likely to impregnate the other flowers; and yet they are very 
beautiful, and generally, we imagine, more attract the general 
lover of flowers. Mr. Turner, of Slough, has lately turned his 
attention to them, and has succeeded in adding several of great 
beauty to the comparatively small number hitherto cultivated. 
The Alpine Auricula is readily distinguished from the florists' 
varieties by the colour of the ground (or paste, as it is tech¬ 
nically called), which is of a deep yellow or orange instead 
of white; the petals are generally shaded, and the contrast of 
colour is very pretty; the foliage is also very different from 
that of the florists’ varieties; being shorter and firmer; their 
constitution is also much more robust, and they therefore pre¬ 
sent few of the difficulties in cultivation which pertain to the 
other classes. 
We have ourselves during the past year experienced the ex¬ 
treme precariousness that belongs to the culture of the Auri¬ 
cula. A fine collection of upwards of three hundred plants 
having been entirely destroyed by the use of loam in which 
some deleterious quality existed; what it was we do not even 
now know. Pelargoniums potted in it throve admirably, but the 
whole of our collection of Auriculas, one after the other, either 
rotted or dwindled away, the alpine varieties being only those 
which survived. Those onlv who know the extreme difficultv 
