588 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
Hay 16, 1891. 
-- 
Scottish Primula and Auricula Society. 
The fifth exhibition of this society was held on the 8th 
inst., in the City Assembly Rooms, Dundee, and in 
opening the exhibition in the presence of a goodly 
number of local nurserymen and amateurs, the Lord 
Provost said that five years ago a number of Auricula 
growers resolved to supply the want felt in Scotland of 
an annual show of their favourite flowers. While 
England had several shows, Scotland had none. The 
proposal, started in Dundee, met with great success, 
and the new society was joined by most of the growers 
and lovers of the flower in Scotland. The three first 
shows were held in Edinburgh, and last year the show 
in Dundee was so well patronised that it was agreed to 
hold it again in the city. It would interest many to 
know that forty years ago Auriculas were shown at the 
spring show then held. At that time there were six well- 
known collections in the town. On the death of the 
owners the cultivation of the flower fell off for a time, 
but of late years the enthusiasm had returned as great 
as ever. The Dundee growers were raisers as well as 
cultivators, and many of the flowers grown at the 
present time bore their names. The west of Scotland 
was also noted for the number of successful raisers and 
growers. Lovers of Auriculas said that when once so 
struck with their beauty that they took to the cultiva¬ 
tion of them their affection was unbounded, and, 
looking at their exquisite form, that was not to be 
wondered at. 
The trying character of the season notwithstanding, 
the show was an exceedingly good one, comparing 
most favourably with any of its predecessors. Mr. 
J. D. Ker, Douglasfield, exhibited the best eight show 
varieties, two from each class, staging Mrs. Potts, 
Black Bess, Rev. F. D. Horner, Prince of Greens, 
Acme, John Simonite, George Lightbody, and Alex. 
Meiklejohn. The premier self, Mrs. Potts, and the 
premier green edge, Rev. E. D. Horner, were selected 
from this collection. The second prize was taken by 
Mr. W. Kilgour, Blair Drummond, and the third by 
Mr. Andrew Laing, Pitcairlie, in whose collection was 
the premier white edge and the premier plant in the 
show, Acme. The same exhibitors secured the awards 
in the class for four, dissimilar, and in the same order 
of merit, the first prize plants being Mrs. Potts, Rev. 
F. D. Horner, George Lightbody, and Acme. With 
a pair, Mr. Ker again held his own with George 
Lightbody and Rev. F. D. Horner ; Mr. W. Galloway, 
Gagie Den, coming in second, afld Mr. John Menzies, 
Duns, third. 
Single plants.—Green edged : First and second, Mr. 
J. D. Ker, with Rev. F. D. Horner and J. D. Ker ; 
third, Mr. W. Galloway, with Rev. F. D. Horner; 
fourth, Mr. J. D. Ker, with Prince of Greens ; fifth, 
Mr. W. Kilgour, with Prince of Greens. Grey edged : 
First and second, Mr. W. Kilgour, with George 
Lightbody and George Rudd ; third, Mr. W. Kilgour, 
with George Lightbody ; fourth, Mr. W. Straton, 
Broughty Ferry, with George Lightbody ; fifth, Mr. 
J. D. Kir, with Richard Headley. White edged: 
First, Mr. A. Laing ; second, Mr. W. Straton ; fourth, 
Mr. J. D. Ker ; and fifth, Mr. W. Kilgour, all with 
Acme ; third, Mr. W. Straton, with Heatherbell. 
Selfs: First, second, and third, Mr. W. Kilgour, with 
Mrs. Potts, Heroine, and Vidette ; fourth, Mr. J. D. 
Ker, with Black Bess ; fifth, Mr. A. Laing, with 
Brunette. A special prize given for four seifs was won 
by Mr. A. Laing, with Black Bess, Duke of Albany, 
Mrs. Douglas, and Negro. 
In the classes for Alpines a fair number of specimens 
were staged, but these do not receive anything like the 
attention given to the stage varieties from growers in 
Scotland. Besides the plants staged for competition, 
several growers exhibited collections of from eighteen 
to thirty-six plants. A prize was also offered for the 
best seedling, and about two dozen were shown. It 
was awarded to a green-edge of no great merit, and none 
were deemed worthy of a certificate. 
The Auricula in May and June. 
Only the wreck of the Auricula bloom remains to this 
day. It may be accepted as an axiom in Auricula 
culture that an early bloom is much more lasting than 
a late one ; and the bloom having been generally late 
this season, has proved an evanescent one. The intense 
summer heat of the 7th inst. had a very serious effect 
on the remaining blooms, and they went down before it. 
In the case of plants not requited to mature seed, the 
seed pods can be removed, leaving the truss-stem, and 
the plants be re-potted. By the time the plants have 
bloomed they may be said to have made their spring 
growth, and if they are re-potted by the second week 
in June, they make their second growth of the year in 
fresh, nourishing soil, and add strength to their develop¬ 
ment. This is a decided gain. I know that objection 
is sometimes urged against early potting that it encour¬ 
ages the production of autumn trusses ; but I am not 
at all sure of this. I am one of those who hold the 
opinion that the embryo truss is formed in the heart of 
the plant much earlier than is generally supposed, and 
if the excitement to movement in the plant, consequent 
upon early potting, can be exhausted by August, the 
chances of autumn trusses being thrown up are lessened, 
and my reason for holding this is that on one occasion 
I saw, at the Royal Nursery, a collection of plants 
that had been potted in August, and by September a 
arge number of them had developed autumn trusses. 
I feel satisfied, in my own mind, that the plants can 
better bear the strain of a hot summer when in fresh, 
sweet soil than when allowed to pass through the 
early summer months without a shift. 
Now is the time for green-fly to revel among the 
plants, and it is only by means of fumigations with 
tobacco smoke that they can be kept under. The new 
paste known as Nicotina, or McDougai’s Fumigating 
Sheets are convenient ways of fumigating, and one is 
saved the labour of tearing up into small pieces the 
tobacco paper or rag. The plants should be moderately 
watered after re-potting until they are well established 
and can take more ; at the same time they must not 
be allowed to suffer from drought. I find an occasional 
syringing overhead, on a bright day, appears to be very 
refreshing to them.—A. D. 
New Alpine Auriculas. 
I ventured to prophesy a year ago that some fine 
things in the way of white-centred Alpine Auriculas 
might be looked for from the Royal Nursery, Slough. 
I inferred this from a batch of very promising yearling 
seedlings I saw blooming in April of last year. Two 
of these put in an appearance at the exhibition at the 
Crystal Palace, Sydenham, on the 9th inst. One was 
Mrs. W. G. Head, with a good circular white centre, 
and maroon ground shaded to violet-blue. The other 
variety was Winnifred, paler in colour, the dark 
shading to a salmon-violet, the centre remarkably white 
and pure, circular, and smooth ; indeed, in all respects 
a very fine variety, and should it ever be put into 
commerce it will, I have no doubt, take a high place 
on the exhibition table. But why does Mr. Turner, in 
his catalogue of Alpine Auriculas, speak of them as 
possessing paste ? We term the white zone of mealed 
substance, with its coating of farina, which exists in the 
show varieties, the paste, and it is the absence of this 
paste or mealed substance which constitutes the differ¬ 
ence between the Alpine and the show varieties.—A. D 
-•*$«-- 
SINGLE WALLFLOWERS. 
I suppose it is entirely a matter of taste as to whether 
double or single Wallflowers are grown, but I have 
always preferred the single. They are more free in 
growth, more branching, hardier, more floriferous, and 
much more sweet smelling. Of the dark varieties the 
two that I like best are the old Devonshire variety, 
the Bloody Warrior and the German Black Tom 
Thumb. The Warrior has a fine broad petal, thick in 
substance, and has a most delicious odour—the real 
old-fashioned smell of the English Wallflower. A bed 
of them has a rich, velvety appearance that is exceed¬ 
ingly pleasing to the eye. The Black Tom Thnmb is 
of dense, dwarf, bush-like growth, and, when true, is as 
even as a table, and not more than 9 ins. to 1 ft. in 
height. It makes a fine bedder. 
Amongst the yellows, Bedfont Giant is a first-rate 
yellow, and grows robust and tall, with a bright 
yellow shade inclining to orange. Ware’s Dwarf 
Yellow is a capital bedder, being dwarf and of an even, 
light yellow colour, while it is very free flowering. 
This season I am growing two varieties that are new 
to me. One is called Primroso Dame, and it partakes 
much of the “primrose path of dalliance” in its 
appearance, being of a light distinctly primrose shade. 
A bed of it is most striking, and has a bright cheerful 
look. The other new one is called Gem, which is of a 
creamy white colour. It is quite a departure from the 
beaten track, and forms a pleasing contrast to the blood- 
red and bright yellow Wallflowers. I saw a very pretty 
and inexpensive bed in a garden the other day. The 
form was a sort of oblong square, the edging Myosotis 
dissitiflora, the inner row Ware’s Dwarf Yellow 
Wallflower, and the centre a good strain of Blood Red. 
The effect was charming.— Devoniensis, 
JACK-IN-THE-GREEN, &c. 
Under, this heading I include all those curious and 
grotesque forms of the Polyanthus to be found in many 
gardens, and especially in those attached to country 
cottages and farmhouses—eccentric things of many 
types that have a great interest for the botanist and 
the lover of old-fashioned flowers. My attention has 
recently been called to them through receiving from 
my old friend, Mr. William Wardill, of Luton (who is 
an ardent lover and admirer of all things in the way of 
flowers, great or small), a box of varied and singular 
things in their way, which he had found in a garden in 
the village of Toddington. When I gave him my 
opinion of them, I acknowledged their interesting 
character, but said the public—meaning thereby the 
flower-loving public—do not appear to care for them. 
But my old friend appears to think that what the florist 
discards is the very thing the public cares for, and so 
warm does he become in advocacy of this idea, that he 
really seems disposed to embark his large fortune of 
enthusiasm and floral love in a mission to the public, 
to bring them to a sense of the beauty and decorative 
value of these abnormal forms of the Polyanthus. 
When he makes a beginning in his noble work, we 
shall all believe and know that do more sincere, fervent 
and hopeful missionary ever before carried to his fellow 
men and women the messages which burdened his mind. 
May he succeed abundantly, and by-and-bv come 
back to us a gloriously successful reaper of converts, 
bringing his sheaves with him ! 
Mr. Wardill informs me that his friend Mr. Charles 
Tomson has in his garden a remarkable collection, 
some with the enlarged calyx quite green, and some 
with the green running up into the corolla, others with 
the colour of the corolla partly suffusing the calyx, and 
some with a huge calyx almost or quite hiding the 
corolla—the shirt collars of the grand old men among 
these floral curiosities, just as Mr. Harry Furniss 
represents the one worn by our G.O.M. With these 
my friend associates the old double Gold-laced Poly¬ 
anthus, known in the north as Tortoise-shell, and the 
double yellow Auricula, and regrets that they are not 
more often grown. All lovers of flowers are with him 
in the expression of this regret. 
I am quite sure that it will be found a very pleasant 
occupation to raise seedlings from these floricultural 
outlaws. At the Primula Conference held in the 
Conservatory at South Kensington in 1886, that 
happy hunting ground for floricultural novelties in by¬ 
gone days, I actually received a First Class Certificate 
for a Jack-in-the-green, or Jack-a-napes, as it is some¬ 
times termed, named Crimson Beauty—a most startling 
innovation—a kind of floral upheaval that nearly 
changed the condition of things in the floricultural 
world of that day, and this may happen again at no 
distant day, if our good friend Wardill’s patriotic 
missionary expedition proves—as I believe it will 
—eminently successful. 
Dr. Prior, in his Popular Names of British Plants, 
makes no mention of Jack-in-the-green, or Jack-a-napes. 
He has Jack-by-the-hedge, Alliaria officinalis, 
alluding to its offensive smell and its usual place of 
growth ; and Jack-of-the-buttery, Sedum acre, but no 
others.—A. D. 
-- 
SAXIFRAGA CORDIFOLIA 
PURPUREA. 
In this fine variety we have one of the boldest and 
most conspicuous of the Megaseas or large-leaved Saxi¬ 
frages. The flowers are at their best when those of 
most other species and varieties are fading or quite 
over. The panicles are also larger, and are carried 
well above the foliage, which is not the case in early- 
flowering kinds, such as S. ligulata and S. Stracheyi. 
The broad rounded petals are of a deep reddish purple, 
and therefore much more conspicuous than those of 
the type. Owing to their drooping habit the shining 
red or scarlet calyx is exposed, and serves in no mean 
manner to further beautify the flower as a whole. 
The great, roundly-coriate leaves are smooth, coarsely 
serrate, have a leathery look about them, and are often 
tinged with bronzy red at certain seasons of the year. 
Being a Siberian plant and perfectly hardy it may be 
planted in any position where there is a sufficient 
depth of soil. Bold masses of it may be planted on 
the upper reaches of the rockery, in the herbaceous 
border, in front of shrubberies, in the wild garden, or 
on banks along the side of drives, where it cannot fail 
to make a prominent feature during April and May. 
We are indebted to Mr. T. S. Ware, of Tottenham, for 
an opportunity of figuring the plant. 
