54 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
staple ingredients for the top-dressing. "From the length of time 
that these and all the more stimulating manures are kept, before 
they are mixed in the compost, it is highly probable that all their 
more energetic qualities are exhausted, and that, whatever they 
may have been originally, when mixed with the compost they 
differ very little from ordinary vegetable moulds. Thus it appears 
that the energetic properties which the names would lead one to 
suppose are added to the compost by these ingredients, are, in 
great part at least destroyed during the time that elapses before 
they are applied to the plants. 
Mr. Emmerton also recommends several composts, resembling 
that most approved of by Mr. Hogg, but containing a greater 
number of substances; which substances must, however, be 
brought nearly to the state of decomposed vegetable matter, before 
being applied to the plants. The staple ingredient in Mr. Em- 
merton’s favourite compost was a mixture of blood and goose- 
dung, kept in a pit until it acquired the proper consistency, and 
then mixed with sugar-bakers’ scum, and fine sandy loam. What 
effect this compost had upon the flowers of the Auriculas is not 
mentioned ; but Mr. Emmerton remarks that the leaves were verv 
fine and vigorous in their growth, which is exactly the result that 
might be expected from the use of a soil much richer than the 
natural one. 
Besides those which we have mentioned, many composts for 
the successful growth of the Auricula have been published, and 
a far greater number have been acted upon. The fact is, that the 
perfect uselessness of many of the ingredients has been the cause 
of such a variety of composts. If the loam and sand, or sand, 
blood, and the decomposed vegetable matters- which form the 
grand staple, are of the right kind, and in sufficient quantity and 
proportion, it matters little what the minor ingredients may be, 
if they are not absolutely deleterious. This is the chief reason 
why the composts recommended for Auriculas are so numerous, 
and why so many of them all answer the same purpose equally 
well. 
Propagation .—As is the case with many flowers, there are two 
methods of propagating or increasing the number of Auricula 
plants—by offsets taken from the mother plant, and by sowing 
the seeds. Each of these in so far serves a different purpose in 
most cultivated plants ; but the difference of purpose is perhaps 
