386 
THE QARDENINU WORLD. 
May 2, 1903. 
period, to the risk of their being destroyed later on, when we 
have a severe visitation of untimely frost. 
If the Auriculas shown at the Drill Hall, Westminster, on the 
21st ult, had been left to their own care in the open ground, 
they would have been worthless to bring before the public. 
Even the reputedly hardy Primulas and Polyanthuses in the 
garden have suffered immensely from the recent severe visita¬ 
tion of cutting east winds and frost at night. The aridity of 
the winds, in our opinion, was more detrimental to the welfare 
of all kinds of vegetation in the open air than the actual cold. 
In many parts of the country the Auriculas would scarcely have 
been in bloom by the above date if they had been grown in 
the open air. 
A more important point to be taken into consideration with 
regard to the hardiness of Auriculas, or the possibility of grow¬ 
ing them in the open air, is the highly artificial form, size, 
colour, constitution, and the presence of a large quantity of 
paste or farina upon the flowers and foliage. They are, like 
various highly-evolved garden flowers, and even like domesti¬ 
cated animals, furnished with constitutions which are alto¬ 
gether foreign to the wild plant, so that in the native home of 
the original species these garden forms could not exist. In 
gardens they might exist, and even flower, but the beauty of 
the blossoms would undoubtedly get destroyed, even in fairly 
genial weather, if we happened to get an occasional shower of 
rain. This applies more particularly to the show than the 
alpine Auricula, so named because the latter is devoid of that 
paste which is so characteristic of the proper show flower. This 
latter feature would get utterly spoiled if the plants were ex¬ 
posed to rain; and the foliage itself would be in a like predi¬ 
cament, and equally liable to be rendered useless for exhibi¬ 
tion purposes. Another point is that neither of these two lead¬ 
ing types could be induced to develop such large flowers in the 
open ground as they do with the protection of a frame or 
specially-built Auricula house. 
We frequently over-hear people who are looking at the 
flowers say that they have had Auriculas, or some other florist 
flower, under their notice for some long period of years, and 
they generally end up by stating that they had seen equally as 
fine flowers in their youth. There must be a certain sameness 
every year about the exhibitions of Auriculas in proportion to 
the number of old varieties that are annually brought up for 
inspection. What is the limit of the life of an Auricula we are 
not prepared to say, but it must be a fairly long one, consider¬ 
ing the age of some of them. This, taken in conjunction 
with the reputedly tender constitution of such a highly artificial 
plant, must be taken into consideration, and we must admit 
that the duration of an individual plant is great by comparison 
with the Tomato, for instance, which is considered to degene¬ 
rate in the course of ten years, notwithstanding the fact that 
it is raised from seeds. 
The old varieties must of necessity be propagated from cut¬ 
tings or offsets, thus eliminating the possibility of renewing 
their constitution at frequent intervals. Seeds, of course, are 
always available, but the seedlings comparatively rarely come 
up to the high quality required by the canons of the florist. 
A really good thing is, therefore, valuable, and has to be pre¬ 
served at all costs by vegetative propagation, and the life of the 
individual thus prolonged as much as possible. It is highly 
desirable, therefore, that florists, and indeed all growers of 
Auriculas, should annually raise a number of seedlings from 
their best types, with the view of getting new individuals of 
high quality. It seems almost impossible that new varieties 
should continue to be really distinct from the old ones, but 
even if some of the new-comers should prove identical with 
flowers that once existed, and have been lost, their resuscita¬ 
tion would be a distinct gain to all concerned, especially if 
stronger constitution was also vested in the new-comer. 
It must not be assumed that we would urge florists to con¬ 
fine their attention to the already existing race of Auriculas. 
For instance, by introducing fresh blood, it might be possible 
to evolve a beautiful race having all the qualities of the Auri¬ 
cula with the hardiness of the ordinary Primula. That would, 
indeed, be a boon, for then we should expect that thousands 
would Cultivate them where only ten do 1 so now. 
The Rockery at Wentworth House. 
(See Supplement with this issue.) 
On this occasion we give a view of the rockery in the 
gardens of Wentworth Mouse, Mill Hill, London, A.W., the 
residence of Mrs. M. Salaman, to show what may be done to 
improve what would otherwise be an unsightly place in the 
gardens or grounds of a private residence. The first attempt 
at ornamentation does not always succeed, and in this case we 
may say that the rockery was an after-thought. 
In the first instance the site was occupied by an artificial 
pool made on sloping ground. For the purpose of holding up 
the water a great bank of clay was built up on the slope, and 
after being otherwise prepared was covered with a layer of 
concrete 1 in. in thickness. The concrete was made of burnt 
ballast and cement. During the past few seasons the summer 
had been veiy dry, and the clay was given to cracking, so that 
the water escaped. The contraction of the clay had the effect 
oi leaving a vacant space beneath the concrete, and the roots o: 
Elm trees also played havoc with the latter, as they frequently 
do in gardens, with the result that the pond never held water 
for any length of time, and became an eyesore on the place. 
The gardener, Mr. H. E. Edwards, suggested that the pond 
should be broken up, all the rubbish taken away, and that a 
rock garden should take the place of it. This entailed a deal 
of hard work, because, although the concrete failed to retain 
water, it was, nevertheless, a very substantial structure when 
its destruction had to be undertaken and the rubbish wheeled 
away. The ground was thoroughly drained after the removal 
of the concrete. The last-named material was not entirely 
wasted, as the gardener conceived the idea of utilising it for 
the building of rock-work. These artificial stones, so to speak, 
are effective, as may be seen from the illustrations, and show 
what can be done with otherwise useless material. 
The photograph was taken about six months after the 
work was finished, so that our readers can judge of the effect 
that can be obtained in a very short time by the use of 
rockeries. Many an unsightly corner of the garden and grounds 
of private establishments has been made both interesting and 
ornamental by the building of rockeries of various sizes and 
forms, and with such material as can readily be got together in 
the neighbourhood. 
As will be seen by reference to the illustration, there is a 
background of deciduous trees, and where that is the case one 
can frequently utilise such situations for producing beautiful 
spots in the garden or grounds. Rookeries may be made to 
occupy such sites, or a, Bamboo garden could be planted with 
the assurance that they will succeed owing to' the presence of 
shelter. One of the most conspicuous trees in the picture is 
a tall Crack Willow (Salix fragilis), which is one of the two 
British arboreal Willows which might be much more exten¬ 
sively utilised than they are in gardens with fine effect. W here 
large trees would be inadmissible, these Willows can be made 
to assume almost any size and shape which circumstances and 
the gardener and owner may desire. These Willows are, in 
fact, not very inapt substitutes for the Japanese Bamboos, and 
have often been termed British Bamboos. Smaller specimens 
of Willows may indeed be seen in the background of one of the 
pictures. 
Wherever the ground is at all wet a number of the more 
ornamental of the British Willows might be utilised with fine 
effect. Many of the British trees have been much neglected 
in recent year’s, notwithstanding the fact that many of them 
are more graceful and beautiful than the exotics upon which 
so much time and trouble are often expended. 
Damage at Wyveniioe Park, Essex. —William Bains, Charles 
Jacobs, William Palmer, George Wright, Frank French, William 
Ablitt, James Reynolds, William Lines, Georve French, an 1 
William Fuller, juveniles, were charged with wilfully damaging 
a Willow tree to the amount exceeding £1, the property of Mr. 
Charles Edmund Gooch, Wyvenhoe Park, on March 15th. Mr. 
Gooch said he brought it forward in order to prevent, if possible, 
any further damage. For the damage to the tree the boys were 
each fined 10s., to include costs. 
