Plate 202 . 
AUEICULA, LOED CLYDE. 
The National Auricula Show having been again held this 
year in London, a good deal of interest in this beautiful spring 
flower, so rapidly increasing in popular favour, has been ex¬ 
cited. The long range of plants exhibited, attracted through¬ 
out the day a large number of admirers, many of whom were 
evidently ignorant of the great beauty of the many varieties 
sent in by amateurs and dealers both north and south. 
A considerable difference of taste exists between northern 
and southern growers as to what constitutes a good Auricula 
for exhibition, the former having been in the habit of greatly 
reducing the number of the “ pips,” as the individual flowers 
are called, so as to make a truss consist of but three or five 
flowers, and looking more to the quality of the pip than to the 
size and effect of the plant as a whole ; while the latter have 
regarded these as essentials, and have been more inclined to 
obtain large flowers than small ones. The friendly intercourse 
that has taken place between them both in these exhibitions 
has had the good effect of modifying both these views, and we 
doubt not that permanent good will result from it. There can 
be no question that refinement is the one remarkable charac¬ 
teristic of the Auricula; and if a flower be naturally coarse, or 
be made so by cultivation, it very materially detracts from its 
beauty, and, moreover, the effect of high stimulants on the 
Auricula is to alter completely the character of the colour, so 
that they are, for these reasons, to be avoided. We think, too, 
that the opinion is now winning its way amongst northern 
growers that to cut down the number of pips, as they have 
been in the habit of doing, is also wrong, inasmuch as it gives 
them a very bald appearance. 
