April 6, 1889. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
501 
and may be said to come on with a rush, for as soon as 
it is truss-bare, the advance is rapid. Not so with 
Prince of Greens. My plant of this laid its truss bare 
early in February, but since then the progress has been 
solemn and stately, like the slow and solemn march of 
the funeral of a great warrior ; and assist development 
as I will, it is doubtful if I shall get the plant in flower 
by April 23rd. If the weather keep mild and sunny 
I have hope, but if piercing winds come from the north, 
then the task is made much more difficult. Acme, with 
white edge, is one of the earliest to flower. I have 
three or four plants of this pretty variety unfolding 
their pips. It is one of the most useful and reliable of 
the white edges, a good grower, very free, and always 
to be depended upon. 
The peculiar fascination of Auricula-growing is the 
flowering of seedlings. I have some show Alpine and 
double varieties of good blood, that are beginning to 
flower. Some seedling green edges of excellent 
parentage show, as is usual, many seifs among them. 
Surely the self form must have been the original type, 
as the Auricula when raised from seed seems always to 
be striving to hark back to it. I have two or three 
yellow seedlings from Hetty Dean, that I am hopeful 
will give me something good, but all, like that variety, 
are early to flower. Why should not the yellow self be 
parent, and I am hopeful of obtaining from it a progeny 
of seedling white centres that may enrich this somewhat 
restricted class. I do not know what varieties Mr. 
Thurstan took as seed parents, but I am bound to state 
that the seedlings, with but few exceptions, show good 
blood, and therefore the pedigree is commendable. 
Double Auriculas are coming on apace also, but they 
are always later in blooming than the other classes, and 
so I have been unable to show them at the meeting of 
the National Auricula Society in London. I am doing 
my best to get a representative collection in flower by 
the 23rd, and I hope I may succeed.— R. D. 
-— > 3 =< -- 
OLIVIAS. 
Of the three species of Olivia known to science, namely, 
C. nobilis, C. Gardeni, and C. miniata, the latter has 
now been thoroughly taken in hand by the hybridist, 
and its improvement is as assuredly being effected as is 
that of Amaryllis, another group of the same family. 
The size and colour of the flower, even in the typical 
form, so far excel those of the other species that their 
influence in moulding the improved sorts is not 
considered desirable. Much greater variety, however, 
would have been obtained by crossing C. miniata with 
C. Gardeni, with its yellow, scarlet and green-tipped 
types with their narrow segments are nowhere by 
comparison. Brilliant does not exceed 14 ins. in height 
to the top of the truss. The flowers of Glow are 
widely expanded, and the scape stands about 16 ins. 
high, while that of Vivid has the segments distinctly 
recurved and the scapes slightly taller. The flowers of 
all the three varieties are of a rich glowing colour. An 
unnamed seedling, in a half-expanded state, showed 
a very intense shade of orange, distinctly tinted with 
bronzy purple. 
Older Varieties. 
A considerable number of kinds were in flower when 
we examined the collection the other day, but the 
greater number including even continental named sorts 
are so inferior to the Messrs. Laing’s seedlings, that we 
only noted the best. Sulphurea and Mrs. Laing are 
excellent and distinct kinds, with very broad segments ; 
the former is notable for its pale yellow colour, suffused 
with a thin shade of orange, and the latter is well 
known for the huge size of its trusses. A distinct- 
looking variety is Mr. Poe, a seedling raised by that 
gentleman, and having orange-scarlet flowers, suffused 
with a bronzy tint. As far as colour is concerned, 
Orange Perfection is very rich, but the segments are 
narrow compared with the best forms now grown. It, 
however, received a certificate some years ago. 
Clivia miniata var. Lady Wolverton. 
restored to its original position among the self class, 
and not be relegated to that olla podrida, the fancy 
class—a hodge-podge of burlesque Auriculas, in very 
many cases the rejected ones of collections ? Gorton s 
Stadtholder, a yellow self, found its appropriate 
place ; and why not the modern yellow seifs that are 
good enough for the position ? Is Stadtholder still in 
cultivation ? I had it once, but it was wholly beyond 
my power to keep it. 
Some time ago Mr. James Thurstan gave me a batch 
of tiny plants of seedling Alpine Auriculas ; the main 
of these bloomed last season, and I marked about a 
dozen to flower again. Some were very pretty indeed, 
but taking Turner’s Unique as a model Alpine Auricula, 
it seems difficult to get beyond it. Size has come into 
the flower of late to such an extent, that I am afraid it 
is at the expense of refinement. Mr. Turner’s greatest 
triumphs in Alpine Auriculas have been with golden- 
centred, edged and self flowers. I want to see the 
delicate white-centred varieties—the soft and gentler 
sex among the Auricula family—extended and improved. 
I have one among Mr. Thurstan’s seedlings, a clear 
white centre that does not die away into the deadness 
of creamy brown, but keeps its life and expression to 
almost the last, and the marginal colours, as they 
mature, rise into ascending scales of shaded blue in the 
gamut of perfection. The pip is large, flat and solid, 
but it is pin-eyed. It will make an excellent seed 
flowers. The want of variety in colour amongst the 
Olivias is their chief drawback; but on inspecting the 
great number of seedlings now coming into flower in 
the nursery of Messrs. John Laing & Sons, Forest Hill, 
there seems to be some indication of the typical orange- 
scarlet giving rise to other shades of colour ; and by in¬ 
tensifying these tints by seed sowing and selection, some 
distinct and very desirable colours may yet be obtained. 
Seedlings Flowering for the First Time. 
A considerable number of seedlings have now reached 
the flowering stage, and many of them are of the same 
grand type as John Laing, which recently received a 
First Class Certificate from two different societies. The 
flowers, of which there were twenty-two on a truss, are 
of an intense orange-scarlet, of great substance and 
breadth of segments. Another seedling named Sal- 
monea has orange flowers tinted with salmon, and as 
they fade they exhibit a certain amount of cerise. 
The truss is large, and stands about 18 ins. high, while 
the whole plant is of good habit. Delicatissima and 
Purity are of the same large type as above, and their 
special features are that they have a broad white band 
on either side of a median yellow one in the wide open 
throat. In this respect Purity is the most decided in 
tone. Another valuable character from a horticultural 
point of view is the dwarf habit exhibited by many of 
the seedlings with large flowers, against which the old 
Three or four years are required to raise seedlings to 
flowering size, and during this period they must receive 
liberal shifts to encourage rapid growth, after which 
they should remain two, three or more years in the 
same pot, as they flower best when the pots get 
crowded with roots. We noticed a seedling which has 
been in the same pot for the last three years, and it 
now bears nine spikes of bloom. 
Lady Wolverton. 
Our illustration of this noble variety shows what is 
being effected in this handsome decorative class 
of plants. The variety was raised by Mr. P. 
Davidson, of Iwerne Minster, Shaftesbury, and 
exhibited at a meeting of the Floral Committee of 
the Royal Horticultural Society on March 12th, when 
it was unanimously awarded a First Class Certificate. 
The breadth of the great thong-shaped leaves, the huge 
trusses of flowers, and the individual size and substance 
of tl e latter elicited the admiration of all who saw 
them. We have seen much darker colours amongst 
other kinds, both old and new, but the orange-scarlet 
with the yellowish white throat was only of secondary 
importance to the breadth of the segments, their 
substance, and the widely expanded or even recurved 
form which they took. Given size, breadth of 
segment and substance and colour can be got by seed¬ 
sowing and selection. The widening of the flowers 
will have the effect of shortening the tube of the flower, 
as is being done in the case of the Amaryllis, but the 
effect cannot be ignored from a horticultural point of 
view. 
