520 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
April 19, 1890. 
_ 
The Auricula. 
The annual Primula festival, held by the National 
Auricula Society, takes place at the Drill Hall, West¬ 
minster, on the 22nd inst., and as it is always a highly 
popular gathering, the devotees of the Primula may be 
expected to assemble in large numbers. The only 
regret is that the building is so ill-adapted to show off 
the flowers to the best advantage. Let us hope the 
clerk of the weather will be in an amiable mood, that 
Sol will shine forth brightly, and the gathering be one 
of an unusually enjoyable character. But one pities 
the Rev. F. D. Horner in having to lecture in a hall 
whose acoustic properties are of such a disappointing 
character. 
It must needs be, to a very large extent, an exhibi¬ 
tion of Auriculas that have been brought on with the 
assistance of artificial heat. No one who grows the 
fine show and Alpine Auriculas can hope to take a high 
place in the competition without the employment of 
some artificial warmth by night. A suggestion has 
been made that a class or two should be provided for 
plants grown and flowered without any such assistance, 
but, then, who is to say that this help has not been em¬ 
ployed ? Those, therefore, who grow in unheated houses 
and frames must do the best they can if their plants 
are in bloom ; if not, they must be content to stand 
aside. But though the spring has proved somewhat 
unkindly, a fine display of flowers may reasonably be 
looked for. 
The Alpine varieties are certain to be represented in 
strong force. We have witnessed during the past 
fifteen years or so a remarkable development of the 
fine show varieties, mainly the production of the Rev. 
F. D. Horner, assisted by Messrs. J. Douglas, B. 
Simonite, Polman, Mellor, Barlow, and others. Scarcely 
less remarkable has been the onward march with the 
Alpine varieties. From the Royal Nurseries, Slough, 
has come a large number of new varieties, a few of which 
have been distributed, while many others have ceased 
to exist, but without any halt in the march of progress. 
New combinations of colours have been seen in associa¬ 
tion with brilliant tints ; and were anyone disposed to 
criticise it would take the form of the expression of a 
fear there is great danger that size may result in coarse¬ 
ness. But the advance is seen much more in the case 
of the brjlliant golden-centred varieties, than in those 
having white centres. There is plenty of room for im¬ 
provement, for there are very few good and persistent 
white-centred flowers. George Lightbody and the old 
Conspicua still hold their own when well grown and 
bloomed. 
That the other members of the great Primula family 
will be seen to the best advantage there can be no 
doubt ; as with the poor, the Primulas are always with 
us. The double and single Chinese types, the perennial 
P. obconica and P. floribundagild the dull autumn and 
short winter days with their varied blossoms ; then 
comes the Primrose and Polyanthus, the Auricula, and 
many others. Later on appears P. rosea and P. 
japonica ; meanwhile P. Sieboldi and its almost in¬ 
numerable varieties have been adding excellence to 
diversity. Then P. obconica and P. floribunda carry 
on the season until P. sinensis again takes up the floral 
service. 
Then Auricula shows multiply. The week or ten 
days following the London show will be a busy one. 
Manchester and Rochdale in the Midlands, and the 
Royal Aquarium at Westminster, will have their 
Auricula exhibitions, and a little later one will be held 
in the Scottish metropolis. All this enterprise makes 
for the increasing popularity of one of the most useful 
and attractive families of plants that we associate with 
the spring months.— R. D. 
-- 
ANNUALS FOR EXHIBITION. 
There is scarcely a flower show prize schedule 
published in the kingdom in which there is not one or 
more than one class for annuals. Now, as a general 
rule, this is a class of flowers with which amateurs 
find considerable difficulty, and the result is that 
seldom more than two or three lots are set up in com¬ 
petition for a prize. The difficulty, or to write more 
correctly, the difficulties are threefold :—First, the 
want of knowledge regarding the best sorts to grow ; 
second, the want of experience as to how to grow them 
best; and, third, the want of a good method of staging 
them. To notice briefly each of these points is the 
object of this note. First, then, as to sorts. Let us 
this with twelve varieties, and let these twelve 
varieties be the following, Phlox Drummondi grandi- 
flora splendens, Nycterinia selaginoides (both half 
hardy), Sultan yellow, Cyanus minor, Calliopsis Drum¬ 
mondi, Clarkia pulchella fl. pi., Jacobsea elegans, Lotus 
Jacobteus, Tropseolum minus coccineum, Sweet Peas, 
Scarlet Invincible, Chrysanthemum coronarium, and 
Nemophila discoidalis elegans. No better dozen could 
possibly be grown for competition purposes, and with 
the addition of Candytuft, Mignonette, a few more 
of the Chrysanthemums and Tropaeolums, Godetia, 
Linum, Malope, Platystemon, and Collinsia, a capital 
collection for the purpose, either for cutting or effect, 
would be made up. The general method of growing is 
to sow a patch and let the plants take their chance 
from the beginning to the end of their life’s journey, 
while in many cases they are neither thinned out nor 
staked ; hence they become untidy masses, and for no 
other reason can I imagine annuals being dubbed by 
so many people as “ weedy things.’’ Half-hardy ones, 
of course, must be sown under glass and carefully 
transplanted. The same method could and is followed 
by some, who have plenty of time and accommodation, 
with all their annuals, but I write for those who, like 
myself, have not much of either to spare. The best 
grower of annuals I know adopts a system something 
like the following, and I can vouch for its efficiency in 
every way. He constructs, out of ordinary wire 
netting, a framework similar to the illustration, vary- 
v v 
ing the height and width according to the height 
and strength of the annuals to be sown. These frames 
are fixed in the border, and inside the wire the soil is 
made fine and the seed sown, and carefully covered 
with soil sifted over it. Some may at once condemn 
this plan as unsightly ; but stay, the wire framework 
has much to recommend it. To begin with, it is very 
easily made bird-proof and cat-proof, and a slight 
dusting of slaked lime round the sides makes it slug- 
proof. It also serves as a stake and guard for the 
plants, and by the month of July very little of the 
framework at all is seen, the plants completely 
covering it by growing through it. For Clarkia s, 
Chrysanthemums, Calliopsis, Cyanus, &c., &c., the 
plan is a grand one. Such varieties will require frames 
about 18 ins. or 21 ins. high, while Linum, and others 
of a similar height, will not require them over 12 ins. 
The dwarf and creeping varieties, of course, do not 
require them at all. When the plants attain a height 
of 1 in. to 2 ins., they should be thinned out to 2 ins. 
apart; strong-growing kinds, such as Chrysanthemum, 
to 3 in. and 4 ins. 
Now, as to the best way of staging annuals. Every¬ 
one has not the time and experience to wire every 
bloom, and therefore it is a very common practice to 
fill 3-in. pots with damp sand, and then dibble the 
individual blooms into them. This method makes up 
a very pretty exhibit of annuals, the lots being all of 
the same size ; but it is hardly within the mark to call 
them either bunches or bouquets, although they are 
generally admitted into every competition. 
The first prize takers in most sections at our flower 
shows are, as a rule, the exhibitors who put themselves 
to very considerable trouble to get their things right, 
and if you look carefully at them on the show day you 
will generally find traces of their having burned the 
midnight oil the night before. From this I want my 
readers to gather that no success worth having can be 
attained, even in what most people consider simplicity 
itself—the growing of annuals—without much care 
and constant work and attention. — IV. C., Springfield, 
Rothesay, Scotland. 
--»**•- 
ENGLISH NAMES OF THE CORN 
POPPY, 
On first thought one would suspect that the more 
common and wide-spread a plant is the more widely 
would it be known under one name, but such is not 
the case with the exception of the word Poppy, which, of 
course, applies to all others of the genus alike. The 
most recent name of Papaver Rhceas is probably the 
Shirley Poppy, from the place whence a strain of single 
varieties of great beauty has recently been worked up. 
In Varietes Bibliographigues, the organ of the library 
of E. Rolland, of Paris, a large number of names in 
different languages are given, including the under¬ 
mentioned names that are used in different parts of 
Britain. 
Wild Poppy, Corn Poppy, and Red Poppy are 
common names well known in different parts of the 
country, while in several continental countries corre¬ 
sponding names are used. In Devonshire and Berkshire 
the species under notice is known as Lightning ; as 
Redweed, in East Norfolk ; Ridweed, in the Isle of 
Wight ; Cuprose, in Yorkshire ; Copper-rose, Canker- 
rose, and Headache, in East Anglia ; Headwark, in the 
north of England ; Thunderbout, in Shropshire ; 
Thunderbolts, Ear-aches, Blind Eyes, Blindy Buffs, 
Corn Rose, Cock’s Head, Cock’s Combs, and Canker in 
various English dialects. In Northumberland it is the 
Fire Flout; in Warwickshire, Cusk ; and in Scotland, 
Cockrose and Coprose. 
The application of several of the above names is 
evident, but to the uninitiated it is more difficult to 
understand the application of Blind Eyes, Ear-aches, 
and Thunderbolts. This is explained in English Plant 
Names, by Britten. There it is said that children in 
England believe that the action of plucking the Corn 
Poppy causes thunder. A similar belief prevails 
amongst the Walloon people on the Continent. In 
England they also believe that contact with Poppies 
brings bad eyes and ears, and causes headache. 
-- : - 
CINERARIAS AT FOREST HILL. 
The annual display of Cinerarias in the nursery of 
Messrs. J. Carter & Co., at Forest Hill, will now be at 
its best, judging from the forward state of the plants 
when we saw them a short time ago. A large quantity 
is grown every year solely for the production of seed ; 
and with this object in view the seeds are sown late, 
and the seedlings finally shifted into moderate-sized 
pots. It would be a disadvantage to sow earlier, on 
account of the deficiency of sunlight and the dull, 
moist state of the atmosphere, all of which would be 
detrimental to the free production of seeds. 
There is, with one or two exceptions, no attempt at 
naming the different varieties grown, but the strain is 
spoken of as Carters’ Brilliant Prize Seedlings. All the 
different sorts are, however, separated from one another 
and grown in batches of a kind. There are something 
like twenty or more different batches, all presenting 
colours more or less distinct. A large percentage of the 
seedlings exhibit the good qualities of the parent 
strain ; but it would be impossible to guarantee every 
variety true to name from seeds, because bees are so 
fond of them that a large amount of intercrossing must 
take place every year. The only way by which this 
might be done would be to isolate each variety in a 
house by itself and exclude the bees, at the same time 
distributing the pollen artificially. This would have 
to be repeated annually - for a number of years, and 
rigid selection adopted. All this trouble is, however, 
quite unnecessary and not particularly desirable, seeing 
that most cultivators desire to get as much variety as 
possible from a packet of seed, provided the flowers are 
large, of good substance, and of rich and distinct 
colours. 
Some of the self-coloured varieties we noted had 
flowers of a magenta-purple, deep violet-blue, deep 
blue, brilliant magenta-red with a white disc, others 
with a dark violet disc, deep bluish purple, rich 
magenta, and rich rose. 1 he two latter varieties were 
notable for their dwarf, compact and floriferous habit, 
a character not confined to a few of the plants, but 
running through the whole batch. The same might 
be said of a brilliantly deep blue variety, which did 
not exceed 6 ins. or 8 ins. in height, and which would 
therefore be suitable for growing in small pots and for 
market purposes. There are two quite distinct types 
of a white variety named Snowflake. Both have pure 
white ray florets, but one is of dwarf habit, with a 
purple disc, while the other is taller, somewhat later 
in coming into bloom, and has a deep blue disc 
and light green foliage. Both are floriferous, and 
extremely useful for cut-flower purposes. The velvety 
crimson Emperor Frederick, with its curiously-clawed 
ray florets, may be mentioned here, but it neither 
produces pollen nor perfect seeds, and has to be re¬ 
produced from offsets. A rich rose-coloured variety 
alongside of the latter often produces ray florets similar 
in form to those of Emperor Frederick. 
Bicoloured flowers are also plentiful, and serve to 
enliven a collection. Like the self-coloured kinds, the 
ray florets are often of great breadth, and well im¬ 
bricated. Some deep reddish purple varieties vary in 
