34 
THE FLOKIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[March, 
ing must also be very carefully done : no plant 
should suffer for lack of it, but if they get too 
much, the foliage will be flabby, and the flower 
stalks will not be stout and elastic as they 
ought to be. 
The pips must also be thinned out at this 
time. There are often more flowers on a 
truss than it will properly carry, so that each 
flower may perfectly develop itself. The 
outer flowers on the truss are the best, those 
nearest the centre will sometimes lack finish. 
The florist likes an odd number, and fancies 
that five, seven, nine, or eleven pips make up 
the best trusses. 
Every owner of a good collection of Auri¬ 
culas should be a raiser of seedlings. There 
has been quite a revolution in the raising of 
Show Auriculas during the last decade. The 
Rev. F. D. Horner and Mr. Ben. Simonite, 
both in the north, have been very successful 
indeed. I also have been doing a little in the 
south of England, with a fair measure of 
success. The grey-edged variety Mrs. Moore, 
of which an excellent representation is given 
in this number of the Flokist and Pomologist, 
was raised in 1879 by crossing Heap’s Smiling 
Beauty with the pollen of Douglas’s Silvia. 
Another variety of good properties from the 
same seed-pod was named Jumbo ; my notes 
of that variety when it first flowered are : 
“ Good petal, greenish grey edge, rich tube, 
and good dark ground colour.” It flowered 
with an edge nearly green last year. Several 
other varieties selected from our seedlings at 
Loxford have taken prizes and certificates at 
the great National exhibitions in London, 
the most notable being Mabel, which not only 
gained the first prize in its class, but received 
a lst-class Certificate, and gained “Premium ” 
as the best Auricula in the whole exhibition. 
In order to reach a high position in the 
raising of seedlings, it is necessary to make a 
large number of crosses amongst the best 
sorts, and to raise at least 200 or 300 seed¬ 
lings every year. The raiser of 20 or 30 
seedlings may be fortunate in making a good 
hit, but it is quite plain that the raiser of the 
larger number of plants has ten chances to 
the other s one. The young seedlings are now 
rapidly appearing above ground, and must be 
pricked out in small pots, as soon as the 
plants are large enough to handle. I prick 
out about a dozen plants in a small sixty ; and 
when they have grown sufficiently for the 
leaves to overlap each other a little, they are 
again repotted, this time three or four plants 
in the same sized pot; the next time they are 
repotted singly, the plants will ultimately 
flower in small and large sized sixties. Some 
growers do not treat their plants quite so well 
as this; but will rather allow them to flower 
in boxes, where they have been planted three 
or four inches apart. 
In hybridising, to save seeds, the classes 
ought not to be mixed. It is best to cross a 
green edge with another green edge, and a 
white with a white edge, &c. Many seifs will 
appear amongst the edged crosses, but they 
are generally inferior to those obtained by 
crossing seifs with each other.—J. Douglas, 
Ilford, E. 
LES PLANTES POTAGERES.* 
M ERE in this somewhat bulky volume, 
MM. Yilmorin have given us a record 
of the results of their observations 
v on the almost endless varieties of 
cultivated vegetables—observations such as 
few establishments could have undertaken 
and successfully worked out, and w r hick 
when completed could not have been put to 
better or more useful account. The volume, 
in truth, forms a complete dictionary of 
kitchen garden plants, and a ready reference 
to all useful information respecting them and 
their cultivation. The subjects are arranged 
alphabetically, the most convenient for re¬ 
ference of all methods of classification, and 
though the arrangement in this case has been 
objected to on the ground that it is founded 
on the popular French names of the plants, 
we do not see how a book written in French 
and addressed to French readers, could very 
well have been arranged otherwise, unless 
indeed it were under their scientific names, 
which would have been cumbersome in the 
seed shop, as well as uncertain of applica¬ 
tion, since concerning even these the doctors 
disagree. After all, the matter of the book is 
of far more importance than its arrangement : 
let us see of what it consists. 
* Les Plantes Potageres, description et culture des princi- 
paux Legumes des Climats Temperes, Par Vilmorin-An- 
drieux ct Cie, Harchands Grainiers, 4, Quai de la Megisserie, 
Paris. 
