WEST LONDON GARDENERS’ ASSOCIATION. 33 
attentive and judicious in tlieir management; many excellent 
papers have been read, and many important points discussed. 
Upon the whole, we consider the example of this institution well 
worthy of being followed by the florists and gardeners of every 
locality in which there is a sufficient number. This is a real 
seminary of knowledge, and something more ; it is “ every man 
helping his neighbour, and saying to his brother, Be of good 
cheer.” 
THE WEST LONDON GARDENERS’ ASSOCIATION FOR 
MUTUAL INSTRUCTION. 
Tuesday Evening , Dec. 1, 1840. 
Mr. Morse read his paper on the culture of the Auricula. 
After a short preface to induce gardeners to bring them into 
more general cultivation, as their beauty and fragrance make 
them valuable acquisitions to the drawing-room or conservatory, 
when the supply of flowering plants is very limited at that early 
season of the year, he objected to the many ingredients recommended 
by most florists—such as bone-dust, soapers’ ashes, sugar-bakers’ 
scum, and other composts difficult to be obtained. His practice, 
which insured him good healthy plants and fine blooms, was to 
take four barrowfuls of good maiden loam of a sandy nature, two 
of good rotten dung from an old cucumber bed, two of peat, and 
two of leaf mould, well incorporated and frequently turned over, 
particularly in frosty weather, for twelve months before using. 
He pots them in July ; and in dividing any that are found to want 
it, he pulls asunder the offsets, as he observed that the use of the 
knife will frequently cause the decay of the plant. In preparing 
32-sized pots for the large and best rooted plants, he puts a 
drainage of potsherds at the bottom, and over them about one inch 
thick of moss, to make it more permeable, and in which the roots 
are found to luxuriate ; he sometimes potted a few of his largest 
plants in 24-sized pots, but was always very careful in selecting 
the sizes of his pots to suit the state of the roots. The offsets, 
planted round fhe side of the pot, are placed under a hand-glass 
near a south wall ; when rooted and shifted they are removed to 
a temporary stage, fixed to a wall with a north aspect, the better 
to shade them from sunbursts, covered with old sashes, which are 
VOL. IT. NO. II. F 
