THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 26, 1861. 
310 
elapsed, for two reasons:—that I think it well, just after the 
top dressing, that they should have a little of the morning sun 
to encourage them into starting ; and because from the dryness 
of the soil, some is sure to be washed off the pots on to the 
shelves and to disfigure them (for I hold that uncleanliness is 
a dissight to the best stage of Auriculas that ever was grown), 
whereas by leaving them for a week or two the surface becomes 
settled, and when the frames are moved the shelves or bars 
! can be cleaned, and the stage be quite tidy for the blooming 
season. 
From this time forward the amount of watering must depend 
i greatly on the state of the weather. If it be dry they will 
require it for the next week or two about three times a-week, 
and after that a little oftener, until, by the time they are 
throwing up their blooming-stems, they will take it every day. 
And by watering I do not mean dribblets of water, but one 
that will soak well the soil; nothing being more injurious to 
any pot plant than the ball being dry and the surrounding soil 
wet. It may seem that these are very simple directions, but 
I have invariably found that it is those simple things that are 
omitted. In directions for culture a writer imagines everybody 
must know such things, whereas, in truth, they are the facts 
about which beginners wish to get information— e.g., the other 
day I received some nice young plants of Pelargoniums, and had 
to repot them. In vain did I search plenty of calendars for the 
sized pots required. I found Mr. Keane’s directions not to 
overpot, and another not to stint. I could, of course, make my 
guess, but a beginner would not have known whether a seven- 
inch, eight-inch, or ten-inch pot was the size required. 
I wonder how many readers of The Cottage Gardener are 
growers of this most aristocratic and refined flower; for it is, 
comparatively speaking, a scarce one, and in the south of Eng¬ 
land especially so. I know of but one nurseryman who, in these 
southern latitudes, sells them—Mr. Charles Turner, of Slough, 
and, as far as I know, in this large county (Kent), I am the only 
private grower, and my stock is but a little one. This arises 
from the slowness of increase, and from the unaccountable way in 
which the plants sometimes go off, though I firmly believe that 
attendance to plain and simple rules will pretty certainly insure 
health and vigour to a “ stud.” It used to be the fashion to 
give them all sorts of nauseous compounds—exciting them into 
growth, but laying the seeds of premature decay, as surely as 
when Master Augustus Fitzarthur takes to the “ weed,” goes out 
to drinking parties, associates with “ hossy gents,” and becomes 
a fast young man, when he ought still to be eating his bread and 
butter, and drinking tea in the school-room. Nor is the Auricula 
a flower whose lists are largely increased by new varieties, it being 
exceedingly difficult to meet our very fastidious requirements. 
As a proof of this, I may mention, that flowers that won prizes 
forty years ago, are winning prizes now; and that one of the 
most successful raisers of seedlings—Mr. George Lightbody, of 
Falkirk, who has been at it for thirty years, has not introduced 
more than a dozen varieties to the list's. Scotland seems to be 
a-head of us in this, as in many other florists' flowers; and some [ 
of those very persevering growers are bringing before us new j 
and striking varieties. 
There appeared in the March Number of that very admirably 
conducted illustrated book, the “Floral Magazine,”* a drawing 
by Mr. Fitch of Volunteer; and in the January Number of 
this year of the “ Florist,” another by Mr. Andrews of North 
Star—two new seedling seifs, raised by a hitherto-unknown 
grower, a Mr. Richmond. Of the merits of the flowers them¬ 
selves I cannot speak, not having seen them ; but in the drawing 
they look tempting enough, and are evidences, we may hope, of 
a growing interest in this flower. I should rejoice to see that 
interest increase, so that we might have a national Auricula Show, 
as we have of Dahlias, Roses, Carnations, and Picotees, &c.; 
and, indeed, I have now a letter before me urging me on that 
point. We might obtain subscribers, but the difficulty is to get 
flowers; and an Auricula Show without Auriculas would be, 
indeed,’ Hamlet with Hamlet left out. Oh, that we could 
inoculate some “ decoratives” with a love of them! they might 
experience, if not too old and hardened, a new sensation. What 
they miss who have never knelt before the lovely “Maria!” or 
enfolded her scarcely less lovely sister “ Sophia ” in their arms ! 
who have never been in the society of the “ Duke,” or on speak- 
* The Floral Magazine, by Thomas Moore, F.L.S., F.II.S., Secretary to 
the Floral Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society of London. The 
Drawings by Walter Fitch, F.L.S. Lovell Reeve, 5, Henrietta Street, 
Covent Garden. 
ing terms with that green (not simple), old man, “Lord Palmer¬ 
ston !” Let those whose eyes have been jaded by the continued 
sight of scarlets, blues, and yellows, as glaring as the costume 
of the overdressed madame of Whitechapel or Bethnal Green 
when down for a Sunday at Margate, just run down to Slough 
in the month of April, and see what a treat a really good stage 
of Auriculas is, and I think they would return with a desire to 
dabble in them. 
The rarer kinds are, of course, expensive, as in Tulips; but 
then good ones can be procured at a very moderate rate, and 
with a tolerable amount of care will yield a treat not easily 
exceeded. They have been divided by the fancy into four 
classes—seifs, green edges, grey edges, and white edges, the 
first being all of one colour. In the others, the lobes of the 
petals are edged with green, grey, or white, with a ground colour 
of sometimes the intensest black, at others of a bright chocolate, 
and again of the most lovely violet. When these are carefully 
disposed as to colour and height throughout a frame, they form 
a sight quite unique in the domain of floriculture. For the 
encouragement of any who may wish to try their culture, I ap¬ 
pend a list of a few in each class, robust m habit, and at the 
same time pretty in appearance : — 
Selfs. —Spaldry’s Blackbird, very dark ; Smith’s Mrs. Smith, 
very dark ; Martin’s Mrs. Sturrock, bright crimson shade; 
Netherwood’s Othello, black ; Lightbody’s Meteor Flag, bright 
blue. 
Green Edges. —Ashton’s Prince of Wales; Dickson’s Matilda.; 
Oliver’s Lovely Ann ; Howard’s Lord Nelson. 
Grey Edges. —Waterhouse’s Conqueror of Europe; Pearson’s 
Badajoz ; Fletcher’s Mary Ann ; Fletcher’s Ne Plus Ultra. 
White Edges. —Taylor’s Glory; Hebwortli’s True Briton; 
Lee’s Earl Grosvenor ; Popplewell’s Conqueror.—D. 
"VARIEGATED HYDRANGEA LEFT UNPRUNED. 
I hate neglected to cut back my plant as I was directed to do 
in a query answered for me in December, 1859, and my plant 
is now straggling, and the shoots are pushing nearly 2 inches 
long. I shall be obliged by information if I can propagate by 
the young shoots, and prune it back as directed in 1859. If I 
can put out the cuttings for propagation, should the cuttings be 
put into a moderate hotbed ; and what kind of compost should 
be used for them ? Also, will the cuttings require a bell-glass 
over them ?—M. F. 
[Cut or prune your plants as you propose. Every cutting 
2 inches long will make ere long a nice plant. Keep a little bit 
of the old wood at the base of the fresh shoot. Insert them 
round the sides of pots—say 4 inches in diameter, half filled 
with drainage, and then with compost one part loam and two 
parts sand, and plunge in the hotbed, but put no bell-glass over 
them. In a month shake some of the earth from the old plant, 
and repot in loam, with a little leaf mould.] 
FORCING. 
(Continued from page 286.) 
heating a house by heated air 
Collected in a chamber round the furnace, called Kidd’s 
system by Mr. Beaton—and the main features of which are a 
very secure fireplace, a damper in the neck of the chimney to 
prevent the heat escaping there too freely, an opening from the 
chamber into the air-flue which goes into the house, and means 
for letting in the external air into the chamber at will—-will, 
I have no doubt, answer admirably for moderate-sized single 
houses, so long as the furnace is all gas and smoke-proof; but 
in houses of large size and of great length from the chamber, 
the air-flue for the heated air will be pretty well as expensive 
as a common flue. The ability to moisten the heated air in 
the chamber, and the means of freshening it from the outside 
atmosphere before it gets into the house, are good points. But 
on the whole, when much is to be done there is nothing equal 
to hot water; -and where economy in fuel is an object, a flue 
from the boiler may pass through part of a house, or heat a 
house separately. 
construction of houses. 
I will not enter farther on this topic than to say that 
\fitness for the object contemplated does not at all depend 
I on expense or fine workmanship, though, of course, the last 
