1882 .] 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
95 
— m b. Shirley Hibberd’s Catalogue 
of Auriculas, New and Old, recently published 
in the Gardeners' Magazine, is specially valu¬ 
able for reference, no other such complete record of 
the varieties of this charming spring flower being in 
existence. It gives the names and characters of 280 
varieties, thus indicating their respective merits, and 
must have cost the author much time and labour, for 
which Auricula fanciers are greatly indebted to him. 
— ©he Pelargonium Society will hold its 
Show this year on June 27, in the gardens of 
the Royal Horticultural Society at South 
Kensington. The liberal prizes offered should bring 
together a good show, and we trust that the growers 
will be warm-hearted in their efforts to maintain the 
reputation which the Society has won by its previous 
and continued success. 
shown. For twelve show varieties, Mr. 
Douglas won the first position with lord of Lome 
(Campbell), Mrs. Moore (Douglas), a new grey-edge, 
with large pips, remarkable for the breadth of the 
paste and the depth of the body colour; Jumbo 
(Douglas), a well-balanced green-edge, of great pro¬ 
mise ; Smiling Beauty (Heap), Blackbird (Spalding), 
Dr. Horner (Reid), C. J. Perry (Turner), Ne Plus 
Ultra (Smith), Lancashire Hero (Lancashire), John 
Waterston (Cunningham), Alexander Meiklejohn 
(Kay), and George Lightbody (Headly). The second 
prize went to Mr. C. Turner, and the third to J. T. 
D. Llewelyn, Esq. Mr. Turner also staged a few 
first-class new Alpine Auriculas, from amongst which 
the following were singled out for lst-class Certi¬ 
ficates -.—Yellow-centre : Gladiator, violet shaded; 
Mentor, dark purple shaded ; J. T. D. Llewelyn, 
violet shaded ; and Amazon, heavily shaded reddish- 
maroon. White-centre : Charles Darwin, plum 
shaded. 
— ©he value of Charcoal in Potting 
soils, as an agent in keeping them open and 
porous, can hardly be too highly estimated. 
Such prime Auricula growers as the Rev. E. D. 
Horner, Mr. S. Barlow, Mr. B. Simonite, and others 
use it largely in their composts, and with the best 
effects. It is not a mere mechanical agent like sand, 
but an active principle, having, as Liebig remarks, 
“a physical as well as a chemical effect on soils 
decidedly useful. It renders them, as far as it is 
present, light and friable, and gives additional warmth 
to them by its colour, which absorbs and retains 
readily the rays of the sun during the day ; wherever 
charcoal has been applied rust never affects the 
growth of Wheat.” Those who use charcoal in 
Auricula soils find less losses among their plants than 
when sand is employed to give it a porous charac¬ 
ter, and the roots ramify more freely in it. The 
cost of charcoal as compared with sand is much 
heavier, but its operation is so beneficial as to com¬ 
pensate in a great degree for its extra cost. Then 
there is the labour of breaking it up small enough for 
potting purposes; if it could be bought reduced to 
finer particles it would be advantageous, and perhaps 
this boon will be allowed should the demand for it 
materially increase.—( Qard. Chron., n.s., xvii, 437.) 
— ©hose charming little Amaryllids, the 
Nerines, require the protection of a cold 
frame, or a cold dry greenhouse such as that 
in which New Holland plants are grown; stove heat 
or the atmosphere of a close, moist house causes them 
to dwindle away. The chief points to be observed 
in their management, as told us by Mr. O’Brien in 
the Garden, is to give them a long and decided 
period of rest by drying them off and keeping them 
at all times in a light, sunny, airy situation. From 
the time the foliage withers late in the spring until 
the flower spikes appear in August, September, and 
October, the plants should be kept on a sunny shelf 
in a dry greenhouse or in a dry, cold frame with the 
lights on and tilted to admit air. Throughout the 
time just alluded to not a drop of water should be 
given them until the spikes begin to appear. During 
the flowering season, and onward through the winter 
and spring, until the leaves begin to wither again 
they should be liberally watered. Repotting should 
be done as seldom as possible, as it generally throws 
them a year out of bloom. The proper soil for 
them is turfy yellow loam. 
— !Ht the Royal Botanic Society’s Show 
on April 26, a few choice Auriculas were 
—• Adverting to the Influence of Selec¬ 
tion on Precocity, M. Carriere mentions the 
fact that while the seedling Roses of fifty 
years ago took six or eight years to produce their 
flowers, it is not now unusual to see them flowering 
the first year. There is, however, great variation in 
this respect between seedlings derived even from the 
same fruit, some seedlings requiring four, and others 
from eight to twenty years to fruit. The Duchesse 
d’Angouleme Pear only began to produce fruit thirty 
years after it was raised from the seed. 
— Hmongst rock plants the Alpine Pinks 
are exceedingly interesting and showy. In 
addition to their other properties, they are, as 
observed in the Field, all thoroughly hardy. For¬ 
merly a much larger number of species were in culti¬ 
vation, but, unfortunately, like many more good old 
plants, they have been lost. The undernoted list 
probably embraces the most choice, and in this, as in 
other cases, it is better to have selection rather than 
collection. As most of these are free seeders, stock 
can be increased rapidly in this way; and, like all 
rock plants, they can only be seen to advantage in 
large masses. They also strike freely from cuttings 
put into a cold frame in summer and autumn. They 
are most at home in a light, rich, sandy, well-drained 
soil, fully exposed to the sun. Those having no rock 
garden may grow them in a sunny border, and if it 
is raised above the surrounding soil it will suit them 
better. These dwarf pinks also look well grown in 
shallow pans in cold frames, and in this way they 
rank with the most choice Alpine plants for exhibi¬ 
tion. 
D. alpinus 
D. arenarius 
I), atrorubens 
D. ccesius 
D. corsicus 
I), cruentus 
D. deltoides 
D. dentosus 
D.'Fischeri 
D. fimbriatus 
D. glacialis 
D. neglectus 
D. petrseus 
D. pungens 
D. ramosissimus 
D. Simsii 
D. superbus 
D. suavis 
D. sylvestris 
D. tymphrestus 
D. viscidus. 
— ©ur contemporary the Journal des Boses 
states that the Manetti Rose, so generally 
utilised as a stock for working roses upon, 
was raised from seeds obtained from Persia by M. 
Manetti at the Botanic Garden of Monza, Italy. In 
1837 some plants were sent to Mr. T. Rivers, at 
Sawbridgeworth, by M. Crivelli, of Como, Italy; and 
it was introduced from England to France the 20th 
of March, 1840, by M. Portemar fils. 
