June 5, 1886. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
629 
especially from its power of “fixing," by means of 
which it unites the more loose particles of the soil into 
a coherent mass, in which the roots of plants can 
acquire a firm foot-liold, and abstract from the more 
soluble ingredients the food they require. 
( To be continued.) 
-- 
A PRIMROSE GARDEN. 
By the heading we mean a garden devoted to the 
fine forms of our common Primrose, in which there is 
now a range of colour and beauty of a high order. 
Many may have seen some of the plants we allude to 
at shows, and as single bits here and there ; but to 
enjoy the full beauty of these plants there is no way so 
good as devoting a piece of ground in some half-shady 
spot to their growth. We can promise a good harvest 
of beauty from it. In the southern and warmer parts 
of the country the aid of a Hazel copse is almost neces¬ 
sary to a good result. In less sunny parts this will not 
be so essential. The early bloom and beauty of the 
common Primrose commend it to all ; but its long 
flowering (as compared with other spring plants) makes 
it well worthy of a special garden culture in its more 
showy and distinct forms. We do not say more 
beautiful, for we do not think any other species of 
Primrose quite so good as the common English kind. 
We never thought this so strongly as in the present 
spring, fresh from the Primula show r —dignified by the 
awkward name of “ Conference.” 
There were many species shown there ; but certainly 
none quite so beautiful or important for our gardens as 
the common Primrose and its garden forms. The 
common Primrose has “sported” into so many hand¬ 
some and richly-coloured forms as to make it well worth 
growing as a garden plant, even where the country is 
half covered with wild kinds. Among the many colours 
now existing, and all raised from the common Prim¬ 
rose, are cream-coloured, sulphur, canary, and strong 
yellows, inclining to orange. There are also inter¬ 
mediate shades varying towards buff, all these colours 
being infinitely varied by the different sizes and tints 
of the eye. 
In some cases this agrees exactly with the 
colour of the flower ; in others, shades gently towards 
it ; or, again, differs strikingly from it. Some have a 
clear white ground colour, with the colour of the eye 
ranging from palest sulphur to deepest orange. From 
these light colours the hues range to reds and crimsons, 
rich claret, and almost black. Some are spotted, some 
are laced, and some have the colour clouded with a 
deeper shade of the same, or streaked and broken with 
lighter contrasting markings. The most pleasing of the 
highly coloured kinds are the bright reds inclining to 
scarlet, with an orange eye, and the splendid rich 
crimson and claret colours, also with the deep yellow 
eye. 
In form the flowers vary a good deal too. Some 
have the true Primrose shape ; some form a nearly 
perfect circle ; others are heavily waved and toothed at 
the edge. The habit varies much, some standing erect 
and compact in large trusses, some tossing down, half 
hidden in the foliage. The more delicate shades have 
pale foliage, which adds to their beauty. Some of the 
leaves are much waved and cut, possessing a beauty of 
their own. 
To get a stock of these Primroses, the simjdest way 
is to start with a few good plants and save the seeds 
early of the very best flowers, sowing it in March, 
planting these seedlings strong by autumn to flower 
well the next season. Those who have not such plants 
might get several strains of seed from distinct sources. 
Some find them best sown in the autumn. When the 
plants flower they should be grouped or classed, re¬ 
taining the types most admired. A very important 
point, in some soils at least, is to divide the old plants 
as soon as the seed is gathered, usually about the end 
of July, cutting the old root-stock clean away, and 
dividing the crowns into separate plants, replanting 
rather deeply. 
Such a garden in an ordinary year would be 
a source of interest for quite three months of our 
spring and early summer. As regards general 
effect of colour, that should be as pretty as anything 
seen in a good garden throughout the year. Indeed, 
few garden pictures we have seen equal one formed by 
the Primrose garden which has led us to write this. It 
is in a little clearing made in a Hazel copse, with many 
Birch stems near. — Field, 
AN AURICULA FRAME. 
I beu leave to direct the attention of Auricula- 
growers who have no greenhouse to a special frame 
lately made for me by Mr. hi. E. Horley, horticultural 
builder, of Toddington, Bedfordshire. Amateur growers 
of the Auricula who live in towns, and especially those 
who can only devote odds and ends of time to their 
plants, may well be glad to meet with a contrivance so 
calculated to reduce the large sum-total of their disad¬ 
vantages. I have grown Auriculas with fair success for 
six months past in a little London garden, and have 
used, to protect them from rain, various kinds of hand- 
lights, raised from the ground on perforated bricks, so 
as to admit air from below. The best of these lights are 
span-roofed, with glass squares which slide in grooves, 
thus securing top ventilation, for a free circulation of 
air is essential to the health of the Auricula. But the 
drawback to them in the case of the amateur, who 
cannot be in the garden at a moment’s notice, is that 
in doubtful w'eather it is not safe to leave the roof- 
slides open, for a sudden shower, and even a slight one, 
may at all times damage the powdered foliage of many 
varieties of the Auricula, while in the blooming season 
it would ruin the delicately-mealed flowers of all the 
“stage ” kinds. 
Yet, on the other hand, the W'eather is often better 
than it promised to be, in which case the prudent 
grower’s Auriculas under the hand-lights are deprived, 
Hor; ley’s Auricula Frame. 
unnecessarily, of the air which would do them great 
good. How, Mr. Horley’s frame delivers the amateur 
from both horns of this dilemma ; it is a less elaborate 
form of the late Dr. Horner’s Auricula frame, which 
was designed to admit a free current of air while wholly 
excluding rain. Its inside measurements are 40 ins. 
long by 18 ins. wide, and the body, which is hollow, 
and is traversed from end to end by three shelves 
rising in a tier, is supported on four stout legs, the two 
front ones 17 ins. and the two back ones 23 ins. high ; 
the ends are of glass, and fixed ; the back is of wood, 
and the three shelves are all equally open to the air 
around. The sloping top, glazed without putty, under 
Mr. Horley’s patent, is provided with a graduated prop, 
so that it can be lifted and held open at any angle, or 
it can be swung by its revolving hinges completely over 
the back. The glass front also drops on hinges, and 
thus in showery weather a current of air can be unin¬ 
terruptedly admitted, the tops being meanwhile propped 
open to the level, effectually sheltering the plants 
within. 
Hot only Auricula-growers, but all cultivators of 
“florists’ flowers” which are naturally hardy of con¬ 
stitution, but delicate in their higher developments of 
leaf and bloom, must w'elcome a frame so apropos as 
this, and particularly those who are contending with 
the many difficulties of town gardening, for these last 
know that in certain conditions of the atmosphere the 
falling “blacks” are a worse evil than rain, which 
injures only the mealed foliage and flowers. It is no 
unimportant consideration that Mr. Horley’s frame 
protects the plants within it from these baleful “blacks,” 
which spot and soil all foliage indiscriminately, often 
dashing the hopes of the painstaking cultivator in a 
single hour.— C. A. GasJcoin, Kensington Square, W, 
MORE ABOUT PANSIES. 
A box of some thirty blooms or so of beautiful fancy 
Pansies has just come to me through the editor, for¬ 
warded to him by Mr. John Forbes, nurseryman, 
Hawick. Mr. Forbes is one of several Scotch florists 
who make a speciality of the Pansy, and who in the cool 
moist climate of Scotland obtain blooms of such large 
size and rich colouring, as to both surprise and delight 
those of us living in the London district, where it seems 
to be becoming more difficult, day after day, to grow 
Pansies with anything like success. The marvellous 
growth of London, which covers acre after acre with 
houses and human beings with a rapidity that is possibly 
startling, the smoke vitiated atmosphere, the London 
fogs that seem to carry in them something that means 
certain death to vegetation, and the systems of draining 
that is constantly going on, necessitated by sanitary con¬ 
siderations, are rendering it more and more difficult to 
grow florist flowers near to “London’s rich and 
famous town.” The florist must go farther afield if 
he would score anything like a respectable measure of 
success. 
Therefore it is that I welcome the dish of charming 
fancy Pansies now before me. They are worthy the tribute 
of homage that I gladly pay them. I made a note of 
the following as being particularly fine :—Mrs. Suther 
land, Mrs. Barrie, Miss Bliss, G. 0. Trevelyan, Earl of 
Beaconsfield, a very fine yellow self ; May Tate, a very 
fine flower indeed ; Kenneth Brodie, Eveleyn Bruce, 
extra fine ; Mrs. McIntosh, Mrs. Hunter, Mrs. John 
Stewart, violet and cream, very pretty ; Mrs. Gordon 
or Goodwin, I am not quite sure which, but I think 
the latter, the writing had become somewhat indistinct; 
W. Cuthbertson, extra fine: Ruby, dark crimson and 
rosy red, margined with yellow ; George Innes, John 
Sutherland, Hellie Martin, Perfection, Pilrig, Mrs. 
Duncan, violet, edged with white, very pretty indeed ; 
and William Dean, very fine also. That makes twenty 
one varieties—a very good selection indeed. 
That these gorgeous fancy Pansies are widely popular 
there can be no doubt. What I particularly like in the 
blooms sent by Mr. Forbes, is their massive substance 
of petal, and excellent form. I have seen strains of 
fancy Pansies that had only size to recommend them— 
unduly large and thin in substance, with the tips of the 
petals hanging down like the ears of a sow, not beautiful 
objects at all. But it must be said in justice to our 
Scotch fancy Pansy raisers—Forbes, White, Paul, 
Dickson, Downie, Laird, Dobbie, and others—that they 
have keen eyes for the true florist qualities in the Pansy, 
and when any of the newer Scotch-raised Pansies come 
south, there is but very little fault indeed to find with 
them on that score. Whatever others may do, they 
are faithful to the “points ” so strongly insisted upon 
by the past generation of florists who sketched the true 
properties of florists’ flowers. 
Here, in the south, we who love Pansies find it to be 
somewhat risky to plant out in the autumn, because of 
the losses experienced during the winter. It is much 
better to winter the plants in pots, or planted out in a 
cold frame, and put them out in early spring when it is 
safe to do so. To be thoroughly enjoyed, Pansies 
should be grown in beds, and for two main reasons— 
they are under so much better control, and they are 
showier and more pleasing, besides affording oppor¬ 
tunities for comparison. Thus it is that our Scotch 
friends make their beds in a sheltered spot, protected 
from sweeping blasts. They manure the ground well in 
autumn, throw it up rough for the winter, and in March 
they fork it over and thoroughly pulverise the soil. 
Then they lay out their beds, 4 ft. or so in width, and 
of a length to suit both the ground and the collection 
to be planted. Four plants are placed in a line across 
the bed, and they are 1 ft. apart each way. A bed of 
Pansies painted with different varieties has a very 
pleasing effect; but I would recommend that the show 
varieties be kept by themselves and the fancy flowers by 
themselves. One of the leading Scotch growers recom¬ 
mends that the cultivator should, previous to planting, 
have some fresh turfy loam at hand, and having made a 
hole for the plant, put in some of the new loam in the 
form of a cone, spread the roots over this, and fill round 
the neck of the plant with the same loam ; this causes 
the stem of the plant to emit roots, and gives it a fresh 
hold. When the plants have been growing about two 
months or so, give them frequent waterings or liquid 
made of sheep or cow manure, taking care not to touch 
the foliage or go too near the neck of the plant with it, 
and when the surface of the bed gets caked, run the 
