524 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
April IS, 1891. 
* < I < OfUdU'l < TlJ'f^. 
--J.- 
The Auricula Bloom at Reading. 
I think the Reading men will give a good account of 
themselves on the 21st inst. Within the environs of 
the “ biscuit city ” there resides a band of some seven or 
eight cultivators of the Auricula, all comparatively 
young beginners in point of time ; most of them having 
youth on their side, all full of floricultural faith of a 
highly orthodox character, actuated by a love for the 
flower that seems to increase in intensity and fervour, 
and all determined to cultivate to the very best of their 
ability. This floral brotherhood acts with such super¬ 
abundant energy and determination that it is only 
reasonable to infer they are determined that Reading 
shall in the future dominate at Auricula exhibitions 
in the south. May their numbers increase with their 
enthusiasm and success ! 
A few days since, I had the pleasure of making a 
round of some of the Reading collections and made a 
call on Primus Thomas E. Henwood first. He dwells 
in a part of Reading that is exceedingly high in point 
of morals, but not in elevation ; but he has the advan¬ 
tage of shelter, though his garden is small and some¬ 
what enclosed. He has a small span-roofed house, the 
glass roof of which comes right down to the plant 
stages, and light abounds everywhere, flooding the 
plants right down to the bottom of the pots, while 
there is abundant ventilation, and a little fire heat can 
be added when necessary. Mr. Henwood has employed 
but very little fire heat indeed during the winter, 
and as in the days of the Psalmist, “the trees clapped 
their hands in the exuberance of their joy.” So here, 
in the Hamilton Road at Reading, the Auriculas 
appear to be so happy and so contented with their lot 
and treatment, that they exhibit it in their splendid 
leafage, their magnificent trusses ot bloom, and in their 
firmly-developed pips. Perhaps nowhere else but at 
Lowfells, Kirkby Lonsdale, and at Ilford, in Essex, can 
such finely-finished blossoms be seen as at Reading. 
As a convalescent home for debilitated plants of Auri¬ 
culas, the Hamilton Road stands high. Attenuated 
specimens, as near the end of their life as they can well 
be, spring into new life and vigour here. Auricula 
plants under the best management will sometimes go 
back, and great care is necessary to get them into 
a condition of rude health again. Here they appear 
soon to leave their langour behind them, and go forth 
from ill health to perfect recovery and a free develop¬ 
ment. 
Mr. Henwood’s Auriculas are scarcely so advanced in 
bloom as he could desire, but he is determined ; and 
the stubbornness of an ill-tempered season has to go 
down before the resolve of the undaunted florist. The 
seifs are well advanced : Heroine leads the way, no 
doubt the best of the section ; next comes Mrs. Potts, 
albeit her weakness in the tube ; then Black Bess, and 
next in order of merit the lovely Sapphire. Of these Mr. 
Henwood has several perfectly grown specimens, and of 
green edges he has some grand Rev. F. D. Horner, 
a trifle late, but sure to be in ; Prince of Greens 
in fine character ; Abba Lizst, raised by Mr. Douglas, 
is very promising, and will make a valuable com¬ 
panion to the Rev. F. D. Horner; Old Colonel 
Taylor is very gocd also. We want two or three more 
fine greens very badly, and one can scarcely help 
asking what becomes of all the fine green edges raised 
and shown by the Rev. F. D. Horner from time to 
time. There is some talk of his Monarch being put 
into commerce. In the grey-edged class, George 
Lightbody is superb, the pips as perfect as I ever saw 
them ; then comes old Robin Lancashire’s Hero — 
Lancashire Hero as it is called ; one plant of this in 
its green form is very fine, with scarcely a trace of 
meal on the petal edges ; Mabel (Douglas) is a grand 
grey. Woodhead’s George Rudd and Rachel are also 
very fine greys—really as much whites as greys. 
These make up a fine group of white edges. Acme and 
Conservative are very good, the latter correct in all 
respects as a Conservative should be ; Heather Belle, 
very fine pip and truss ; Mrs. Dodwell, a fine white 
also ; and Dr. Kidd, said to have come from Smiling 
Beauty and Acme, is a most useful variety. Mellor’s 
Reliance is a grand white also, with massive leathery pips. 
Mr. Henwood is the hero of the Alpine section. He 
grows them grandly, and among his collection are such 
varieties as Mungo McGeorge, Sunrise, Hotspur, 
Tennyson, Pallas, Unique, and many others, together 
with some excellent seedlings of his own raising. I 
never before saw such a promise of bloom as Mr. 
Henwood’s plants exhibit, and he is bound to be in the 
forefront on the 21st. 
Mr. W. L. Walker, of Dunollie, Reading, has the 
advantage of a lean-to house, and he has a select and 
very good collection indeed, and though not quite so 
rich as Mr. Henwood in “cracks,” has the Rev. F. D. 
Horner, Prince of Greens and Colonel Taylor among 
green edges ; George Lightbody, Lancashire Hero, he., 
among greys ; Acme, Conservative, &c., among whites ; 
Heroine, Black Bess, Mrs. Potts, and others among 
seifs ; and an excellent collection of Alpines. Judging 
from appearances, I think Mr. Walker is likely to do 
very well on the 21st. Like Mr. Henwood, he is a 
raiser of seedlings ; indeed, nearly all the Reading men 
appear to be striking out in this direction, for being 
cultivators of fine varieties, they are wise in en¬ 
deavouring to obtain new forms, having such excellent 
material to work upon. 
In the Erleigh Road dwells Mr. J. Gibson, another 
Auricula enthusiast. Mr. Gibson grows his plants 
in small frames only, and cannot employ artificial heat 
to help development ; but he cultivates well, and 
though late in getting his plants into bloom, will, if 
the weather prove favourable, give a good account of 
himself on the 21st. He appears to confute his 
attention almost or quite exclusively to the show 
varieties, and is also a raiser of seedlings, amongst which 
he has a promising lot of good blood. 
My last visit was to Mr. William Badcock, in the 
Oxford Road. This gentleman, who is an enthusiast 
over the Auricula, has a small span-roofed house like 
Mr. Henwood’s, and in which artificial heat can be 
employed. He has a good and varied collection of 
leading varieties, and as “cracks” are added some of 
the varieties of least importance in point of quality are 
discarded. That he is an able cultivator there can be 
no doubt ; unfortunately some of his plants have 
suffered through impurity in the water supplied to 
them. He also is a raiser of seedlings, and has this 
season bloomed two, a rich blue and a red, of which I 
have very great expectations. As we may see these on 
the 21st I will not now make any further reference to 
them, but the readers of The Gardening World 
may make up their minds that the group of Reading 
growers of the Auricula will have a good deal to do 
in shaping the future of the flower.— R. D. 
Fancy Carnations. 
Mr. Wardill’s memory is a little defective at this date 
regarding his exhibits at the first show of the Carnation 
and Picotee Union. Besides the blooms which he 
entered in the class for six “ miscellaneous,” he also 
showed twelve flowers, consisting wholly of the old 
type of pricked or spotted Picotees not for competition. 
It is these to which he alludes in his last letter. They 
were undoubtedly in their way very pretty things, and 
of interest, in showing what the white ground Picotee 
was in its original state. 
The particular bloom to which Mr. Wardill refers as 
having taken my fancy, came from neither of his two 
exlhibits at Oxford ; but was sent me at a later date. 
It was an improved Janira, and I greatly regretted the 
plant he was kind enough to send me, it having died 
after flowering the following season. 
All this, however, is not to the point. Mr. Wardill 
stated, not for the fir=t time in your columns, that 
florists’ societies provided no class for seifs and 
fancies, adding now that a fancy Carnation was 
excluded from the exhibition table till he took his 
blooms to Oxford. “Mr. Dodwell,” says he, “parti¬ 
cularly acknowledging their beauty and usefulness as 
decorative blooms, introduced a class for seifs and 
fancies, and now they have become one of the 
most attractive features at the anuual feast of Carna¬ 
tions.” As a matter of fact, classes for seifs and 
fancies had been waiting for our friend for years at the 
Kational, and were ready for him when he came to 
Oxford. 
It would be a curious matter for speculation as to 
what subtle influence may lurk in these fancy flowers 
which seems in the cases of certain of their votaries to 
impair the power of accurate statement, while, on the 
other hand, developing that of the scold to so strange a 
degree. Why, for instance, should any lover of Alpine 
Auriculas not be content to enjoy them, instead of calling 
us hard names, and telling us our beautiful edged 
flowers are “monstrosities”? And why cannot the 
amateur of the “common or garden variety” of the 
Tulip be happy among the flowers of his choice, with¬ 
out fulminating the dreadful charge that florists have 
ruined the beauty of the Tulip by making it double ? 
As for some of our self and fancy Carnation devotees 
they apparently would not leave the florist a 
leg to stand on if they knew but how. But they don’t 
know, and that is the humour of it. The solemn 
fictions which ought to annihilate him, only amuse 
him by their transparent absurdity. I am even afraid 
that all he hears of the sin of interfering with nature 
does not greatly impress him, remembering as he does 
that every step in cultivation is of the nature of so- 
called interference. In the presentment of his flowers 
he finds nature has left him something to do, and he 
does it. And as to art, the fallacy under which his 
censors seem to labour is that there is no art that is 
not decorative art. They can interfere with nature 
there, and have their methods and devices for securing 
the effects at which they aim. It is the old story ; 
raving about nature and the natural they— 
“ Compound for arts they are inclined to 
By damning those they have no mind to.” 
— M. Rowan. 
Properties of the Pansy. 
In your last week’s issue “ E. W.” invites discussion on 
this subject, and gives a lengthy extract from Mr. 
Simkins’ book on the Pansy as a text. Few people 
will care to attack the opinions of an author on his pet 
subject, and I do not see that there is any occasion to 
do so, as the majority of Pansy growers will agree with 
most of his conclusions so far as they go. But his 
description of the properties of the Pansy might be 
supplemented by a few other points, which would make 
it clearer to the uninitiated what a perfect flower should 
be, and I would add under the first heading, “Form,” 
that the wings or side petals should meet above the eye 
and reach well up on the top petals, and when placed 
on the stand or tray the flower should present a 
gracefully arched or convex surface, with the outer 
edges of all the petals resting evenly on the tray. It 
is a defect if too much of the back or top petals are 
seen, and a flat, thin, lying Pansy does not bulk well 
to the eye of a judge. 
Under the heading “Blotch” in the fancy Pansy I 
would add that the blotches should be circular, that 
the blotches on the wings or side petals should pass 
with a graceful sweep from above the eye until they y 
meet the under petal, and that the outline of all 
the blotches should be well defined. Although some 
very good Pansies have slightly peaked blotches on 
their side petals, still it is a defect, the circular Line 
looking much better, and if the outer edges of the 
blotches are not decided, or what is sometimes termed 
“ clean cut,” it gives the flower a confused appearance. 
Under the heading “ Eye ” I would add that it should 
be circular. Although a square eye might be tolerated 
in an otherwise superior flower, nobody will say that 
it looks well. — Veritas. 
Carnations and Pansies at Birmingham. 
With reference to the last paragraph of “ R. D.’s” 
article on the above (p. 508) I have lost no time in 
trying to oblige my friend, but his “ nut ” is evidently 
too soft to crack, and has apparently been gathered a 
month or two before it was ripe, as there still remains a 
tint of green about its surface. If he will at some 
future period send me one gathered in September, and 
fully matured, I will endeavour to operate upon it. 
—James Thurstan, Finsbury House, Richmond Road, 
Cardiff. 
-*->K-- 
LiELIA DIGBYANA-MQSSI2E. 
This grand bi-generic hybrid has again made its 
appearance in public, in the collection of Baron 
Schroder, The Dell, Egham, as shown at the last 
meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society. We may 
take it for granted that this plant will be rare or even 
unique in cultivation for many years. Only one small 
piece exists, namely, the original seedling which 
flowered for the first time in May, 1S89. At that time 
it bore only one flower, but on this occasion, two, fully 
re-establishing the eclat of its first appearance. The 
seed parent was Cattleya Mossise, fertilised with the 
pollen of L;elia Digbyana formerly included in the 
genus Brassavola. The result is a plant combining the 
character of both parents in a remarkable degree. The 
dwarf habit is that of Lselia Digbyana, and the 
remarkably fringed lip owes that character to the 
same parent, which has white flowers. The colour of 
the hybrid takes largely after the character of Cattleya 
Mossite. The sepals and petals are of a delicate and 
pleasing soft rose, and the lip is variously netted or 
marked along the veins with a rich purple, similar to 
what one finds in C. Mossing and which is peculiarly 
characteristic of that form of C. labiata. Hone of the 
hybrids or bi-generic hybrids yet put into cultivation 
are structurally more remarkable than this one. 
