1880 .] 
AURICULAS AS BORDER PLANTS.—CHOICE PICOTEES. 
153 
posed. Plenty of air sliould be given night 
and day so long as the weather proves mild; in 
fact, the weather must be of a very unusual 
character at this season of the year to require 
that the house should be closed altogether. 
Azaleas and Camellias may now be potted, if 
they require it, as their blooms will be fairly 
set. Potting these too early is sometimes 
attended with bad results. 
Such soft-wooded plants as Zonal Pelar¬ 
goniums, Fuchsias, &c., will still be gay, so long 
as fine weather lasts ; and if a little fire-heat can 
be applied as the nights become colder, their 
beauty will be materially prolonged. Those 
who have cold houses must hope for genial 
weather, so that the summer may fade away 
into autumn in the softest and most pleasant 
manner possible.— Suburbanus. 
AURICULAS AS BORDER 
PLANTS, AND FOR CUTTING. 
)T has often surprised me that Auriculas are 
is] so little grown in a wholesale sort of way 
QUO for the purpose indicated above. The 
Auricula is perfectly hardy ; and though it is, 
of course, very successfully grown in pots, yet 
to see its full value as a decorative plant, it 
must be grown out of doors in considerable 
masses. 
We have here a north border under one of 
the kitchen garden walls, wholly devoted to 
Auriculas. Many of the plants have produced 
over a dozen trusses each. The leaves are large, 
and as fine as or only secondary in beauty to 
the flowers; and the perfume seemed that of 
the sweetest primroses, with a liberal dash of 
violet and valley lily added to it. In early 
morning and dewy eve the perfume was as 
pleasing as that of Stephanotis, or Gardenia. 
The plants have been in their present posi¬ 
tion about three years. They have flowered 
finely every season; but last winter being so 
severe, we were somewhat doubtful about them. 
We have had no such winter here since that of 
1859-60. As the Auricula had always stood 
other winters, and looked well during frosts of 
37 degrees, they were left to battle with it 
without a shred of protection. The result is 
that not one is lost, the plants are in robust 
health, and last spring produced the finest head 
of blossom I have ever seen on Auriculas. They 
are planted in the common soil of the garden, 
sharpened up a bit with some road-sand, and 
slightly enriched with a little well-decomposed 
old hot-bed manure, three-fourths of which 
was originally leaves, the other fourth being 
long horse-dung. We top-dressed up to the 
collars in the late spring-time, with a compost 
of the same manure reduced to mould. This 
simple process served all the purposes of in¬ 
layering, in much less time. Each shoot at 
once proceeded to root in the soil at its base, so 
that by the time the plants had finished flower¬ 
ing, each shoot had become an independent 
plant. Thus the units of Auriculas become 
tens ; the tens, hundreds ; and the hundreds, 
thousands. We shall want several hundreds 
this autumn to renew or extend our old plan¬ 
tations, and form a new border twenty-four 
yards long. 
We find no plants so popular and none more 
prized in rooms than the Auricula, not even ex¬ 
cepting Stephanotis and Gardenia. Every one 
admires its rich, soft beauty, so infinitely varied 
in tint, tone, and finish of colouring. The per¬ 
fume is also of the sweetest, richer and fuller 
than that of any other members of the primrose 
family, and reminding one of a sort of trinity of 
odours, composed of valley lilies, primroses, 
and violets. Hardly any pleasure within the 
entire range of horticulture can prove more 
rich and satisfying than that of brooding over 
an Auricula bed or border at early morn or 
dewy eve, inhaling their fragrance, and marking 
their infinite variety of flower and foliage. For 
real enjoyment, give me these simple border 
Auriculas, rather than the choicest selections 
of Dusty Millers, &c., many of which are miffy, 
and nearly all of which are apt at times to 
run their regular lacings into confusion vexa¬ 
tious to the florist. The commoner sorts are 
vigorous as cabbages, and neither snow, wind, 
nor rain, nor any weather, can mar their rich 
beauty, nor rob them of their sweet fragrance. 
—D. T. Fish, Hardwicke. 
CHOICE PICOTEES. 
[Plate 524.] 
)HE subjects of the accompanying plate 
speak for themselves. Minnie (Fig. 1) 
is a light-edged purple Picotee, raised 
by Mr. Eobert Lord, of Todmorden; and 
Estelle (Fig. 2) is a light-rose Picotee, raised 
by the Eev. Charles Fellowes, of Shotesham 
Rectory, Norwich. Respecting these flowers, 
which are now generally known to cultivators 
of the Picotee, our friend, Mr. Dodwell, writes:— 
“ Minnie is a seedling from Mrs. Stanaford, a 
light-edged purple, fertilised with pollen from 
Mrs. Bayley, a variety famous for its high 
quality and brilliant white ground and colour 
and fully sustains the high repute of its 
descent. Mr. Lord, indeed, thinks it the 
finest of his fine light-edged purples, though 
popular opinion inclines, I think, to give the 
first place to Ann Lord. But whether first in 
