776 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
August 6, 1887. 
NOTES ON AURICULAS. 
By the Bey. F. D. Horner. 
I once heard of a cautious old farmer who watched 
with sceptical interest the experiment of a neighbour 
with a new Turnip, said to possess the early virtue of 
being fly-proof. When asked whether he did not 
intend to try it himself, he replied, “ Nay ! it ’ll bring 
its own flea with it, and if it doesn’t, the other fleas 
will invent one for it.” 
It will be a sore thing if young Auricula growers are 
to be met and discomforted by new and special enemies. 
From the plaint of “ C. A. G.” (July 16th), it would 
seem that the unlovely family of Pests has had an 
addition—large, after the manner of all such increase. 
I have, however, asked to be allowed a post-mortem 
on the next plant “ C. A. G.” may lose, apparently 
by “white footless grubs” infesting the stem. Until 
then I will only say that I have not known any living 
stem, or “carrot,” of the Auricula attacked by such¬ 
like grubs. Even that arch grub, the wireworm, finds 
the Auricula an exceeding bitter herb ; and though he 
will abide in the same pot, yet he is to be found at the 
sides of it, or other place of respectful distance from 
the plant, preferring to live on turfy materials some¬ 
what decayed to mortifying his appetite on unrelished 
meats. 
The whole living plant of the Auricula is pungent 
to the taste, but it may be different in decay. Within 
parts of the underground-stem, effete as having done 
their work and useless, I have found patches of a white 
grub ; but they were merely scavengers, not destroyers. 
I have watched their work, and seen them leave but a 
shell behind, and they never worked above the division 
line between the dead and living stems. Finding no 
plants harmed by them, I have not apprehended the 
larvse to see who they are in the perfect insect, nor 
offered them the rival attraction of a sweet young 
Carrot or the gentle aromatic Onion. 
Auriculas have this summer been rather weary of the 
parching heats of the long drought, and have parted 
very freely with their blooming foliage, which should 
remain till the autumn growth is well begun. A 
severe loss of foliage, other than the natural shedding 
which precedes the winter resting habit, is always a 
great check to Auriculas, and it may be that under the 
difficulties of “C. A. G.’s ” situation (a London garden) 
the plants have suffered much in this way. Lancashire 
Hero is a variety that does not bear such a check with 
patience. To lose all main leaves is a loss of lung 
power, and the end is, as it were, “ a decline.” 
However, if the white grubs do feed on living tissues 
they are deadly things, and, I fear, may arise from the 
eggs of some roving fertile green-fly alighting where 
she lists, and whose access to freely ventilated plants 
it will be difficult to bar. 
I think, if the grubs are evidently to be brought in 
“guilty,” I would counsel “C. A. G.” to set up a 
counter-irritant—offer them a possibly more tempting 
food, experimenting, by way of a trap, with the “vile 
corpus ” of a real Carrot, a wedge of new Potato, or a 
slice of the fragrant Onion. 
I do not think the long-legged frames, under which 
and upward all drying winds can blow, are good 
quarters for Auriculas. I remember them in days gone 
by. Hr. Lightbody had some; I have seen them 
elsewhere as tall as a young Punch and Judy show. I 
would amputate all such legs, or, at least, let down in 
windy weather some such kindly covering as conceals 
the legs of the Punch and Judy man, and so keep the 
plants from draughts and drought. Frames raised by 
about 2 ft. of brickwork from the ground are much 
better. The plants should be as near the glass as 
possible, after calculating length enough to allow 
blooming stems not to come within touching distance. 
The lights must have a good slope or there will be 
drip, which is ruinous to the flowers, and most 
dangerous to the plants. The space between the 
ground level and the pots can be filled in with rough 
rubble with ashes over it, and a surface of coarse sand ; 
this will tend to keep worms away. Do not be 
tempted to save bricks by leaving half brick spaces 
open. It looks light and almost pretty, and I did so 
once ; but rats made a note of it, and took up their 
abode inside, and had nests, and before long I had a 
number of plants gnawed over out of sheer mischief, 
and some carried away, it might be for salad. 
"With regard to heating soil to destroy insect-life, I 
am not aware that it demolishes nutritive properties, 
though that invigorating scent of fresh earth is 
changed. I should prefer what I may term roasting 
to a system of baking, as in an oven. But as roasting 
is for the nobler meat of joints, and the oven for the 
humbler hash and stew, so the only soil that con¬ 
veniently can be roasted is the royal “sirloin ” of the 
pasture sod. A long low fire of sticks is roofed in with 
sods, a row on each side, meeting at the top like the 
letter V inverted, with their grassy sides inward. As 
to ready mixed compost (hash or stew), I suppose its 
friable condition would smother any fire, so the only 
way to heat that would be by baking. 
With the exception of a little for fresh sown seed, 
I have never myself heated any soil. Worms, whose 
mischief, beyond eating decayed substances, is purely 
mechanical, can be got rid of by waterings of clear 
lime-water. Other things I hunt or trap. For green¬ 
fly, thrips, or the ever abominable red-spider, a dipping 
in a solution of soft soap and tobacco-paper juice in 
rain-water. But I never had red-spider on Auriculas, 
and they must be under very bad treatment to contract 
that pest. The mixture is always “as before,” and I 
make it to look like very weak tea with very “blue 
milk ” in it.— Burton-in-Lonsdale, Aug. 1st. 
-- 
ALLOTMENT GARDENING. 
At the opening of the St. Ann’s Amateur Floral 
and Horticultural Society’s annual exhibition, held at 
Nottingham last week, Mr. Arnold Morley, M.P., 
said he had been very glad indeed, when asked to 
come down, to do so for more than one reason. First, 
because his visit afforded him an opportunity of seeing 
the Nottingham garden allotments in their prime, or, 
in other words, under the most favourable circum¬ 
stances. It had been his pleasure to see them under 
these conditions that day. He had never seen them 
under circumstances so favourable as he had done, 
thanks to the kindness of their president. In the 
second place, he had special reason to say that it was 
satisfactory to find allotment gardens in such a con¬ 
dition, because on the night preceding in the House of 
Commons the Government introduced their Allotments 
Bill. As yet, he confessed that he had not seen the 
provisions of the measure, but he believed that it 
might be made to be one effective really for their 
purpose as holders of allotments. He was extremely 
glad to find that the Government had seen their way 
to confer the power, which had been so long advocated, 
upon corporations and other local, authorities, enabling 
them to acquire land for purposes of allotments, in 
order that working men and labourers generally might 
have the chance of cultivating the land which, within 
a short period, might become their own. 
He had been surprised to ascertain that in England 
and Wales there were some 386,000 garden allotments, 
varying from a quarter of an acre to much more than 
that size. But comparing that with the enormous 
number of the working population of the country, they 
might readily conclude that that number might 
beneficially be increased, and that, as a consequence, 
considerable advantage would accrue, not only to the 
working classes, but also to the community at large. 
Certainly he had himself spent a most pleasant couple 
of hours in visiting gardens in that vicinity. They 
knew more as to the system of allotment gardens than 
he ; but he could not help feeling that the induce¬ 
ments which they held out for healthy recreation were 
of the greatest importance. If they employed hours 
day by day in their work, healthy recreation of the 
kind which garden cultivation afforded was to be en¬ 
couraged. Change of occupation and change of thought 
were to be regarded as of benefit. For his own part 
he knew of no better change than that involved in 
going from the workshop and devoting one’s attention 
to horticulture. 
There were other benefits to be derived in the 
direction of the elevation of taste and the development 
of character. If they could only get into force some 
system that would enable them to allow a man to 
acquire laud for his own cultivation, to increase the 
means of support of his family, a good work would 
have been accomplished. There would result a distinct 
encouragement of thrift. He understood that many of 
the Nottingham garden-holders materially added to 
their income by the cultivation of their gardens, turn¬ 
ing what might be happy and comfortable homes 
already into still more happy and comfortable homes. 
He understood, too, that there was one garden-holder 
who said he must in his time have walked between 
8,000 and 9,000 miles between his garden and his 
house. 'Well, that was a pretty good walk, and he did 
not know which would do the gentlemen in question 
more good, the walking to or from his garden or the 
actual gardening in which he exerted himself. 
-->Z<-- 
FLOWERING TREES AND 
PLANTS. . 
Japan Meadow-sweet.—B y the name Spinea 
japonica it must not be understood that the popular 
and universally-cultivated plant known in gardens 
under that name is meant. That is an herbaceous plant, 
and more correctly designated Astilbe japonica. On 
the other hand, a beautiful shrub frequently grown as 
S. callosa, and sometimes as S. Fortunei, has more 
right to the name S. japonica, and is a native of China 
and Japan. The leaves are lanceolate and sharply 
serrated, while the rosy red flowers are borne in 
terminal umbels during the months of June and July. 
The species is exceedingly various, and there are several 
forms in cultivation. 
Spirza japonica alba is one of the commonest and 
prettiest forms grown on account of its dwarfness, and 
for this reason it forms a very suitable miniature shrub 
for the rockery. The stems are perfectly shrubby, but 
seldom much exceed 1 ft. in height, forming a level 
top over which the pure white flowers are spread in 
great profusion. Its habit is very compact, and little 
or no pruning is required. 
Sweet-scented Bramble. — For the front of a 
shrubbery, or for isolating in masses on a bank, a fine 
sub-tropical effect is produced by the palmately three 
to five-lobed leaves of Kubus odoratus, that attain 
grand proportions when the plant is cultivated so as to 
grow strongly. The stems attain a height of 3 ft. to 
5 ft. if unmolested ; but should fine foliage be the 
prime desirability, then grow the plants in rich soil, 
and cut the stems down annually, so as to induce the 
plants to throw up a few vigorous-growing stems 
annually. The flowers themselves are purplish rose, 
fragrant, and 2 ins. or more in diameter. 
The Salt-tree. —This is a name popularly applied 
to Halimodendron argenteum, a native of many semi- 
barren places in Siberia and other parts of Asia, where 
the ground is naturally of a very saline character. In 
this country the plant is chiefly valuable from its 
pinnate silvery leaves, that effectually clothe the stems 
when in healthy condition. The long slender shoots 
assume a drooping habit, and for this reason it might 
be made to cover banks or similar places where no 
staking would be necessary. The Pea-shaped flowers 
are soft purple, and produced in axillary umbels. 
Olearia Haastii. —After several years of culti¬ 
vation this New Zealand Composite proves sufficiently 
hardy in our climate to warrant its being planted on a 
more extensive scale. In very severe winters it gets 
killed down when growing in the open ; but planted 
against a wall a large bush is the result, beautifully 
clothed with leathery, evergreen, Olive-like leaves. A 
great profusion of white flower-heads in terminal umbels 
renders the shrub a very attractive object at this season. 
Marsdenia erecta. —Possibly this is the hardiest 
of a genus, the members of which require, with this 
exception, stove or greenhouse treatment. A large 
plant on a wall at Kew has stood out several winters, 
and increases in size annually. The ample heart- 
shaped leaves are of a silvery grey or glaucous hue, 
giving the plant quite a distinct appearance from all 
its surrounding neighbours grown in the same way. 
The flowers are very abundantly produced in terminal 
umbels, and are very fragrant. Considerable interest 
is attached to this plant, because so nearly related to 
the Stephanotis. The tube of the corolla is, however, 
very short, and the plant, a native of South-east 
Europe and Asia Minor, has also been named Cionura. 
Escallonia macrantha.— Independently of the 
flowers, the large, handsome, shining, evergreen leaves 
of this shrub entitle it to the foremost rank amongst 
beautiful and ornamental subjects. The flowers are 
large, deep red, and produced from the axils of the 
leaves from June to August. By some growers it is 
considered tender, but on the sea-coast in several places, 
particularly at Langland Bay in Glamorganshire, a fine 
hedge of it keeps flowering for months ; even some 
northern counties can boast of tolerably good repre¬ 
sentatives of it without any protection whatever. 
