50 THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
* 
perfection, which it is in every case where the rapid bringing forward 
of vigorous new plants is important for the supply of the market. 
For this, and all cases which are in any way connected with the 
vegetable growth of one part of a plant, and the stunted growth 
of another, the reverse of any particular mode of treatment always 
has an opposite effect; as, for instance, the opposite treatment 
to that which produces healthy flowers in a limited number, will 
abundantly produce flowers that are unhealthy, or at ail events 
less vigorous than they are in the other case. If very strong and 
healthy offsets are the object, their number must be reduced, and 
they must be left longer upon the parent plant; sometimes until 
the flowering of that is over ; but if superior growth and flowering 
of the mother plant are the objects, as is the case when intended 
for exhibition, the offsets must be got rid of as soon as possible, 
at the sacrifice of even one or all of their number unon the exhi- 
X. 
bition plant. In some instances the offsets may be taken off as 
early as February, or before the vigorous growth for the season 
comes on ; and in other cases they may be left on the mother 
plant until August, when the vigorous growth for the year is 
over ; but the success and health of the seedlings render it desir¬ 
able that they should be taken off during a pause, or at all events 
a diminished action of the plant from which they are taken. If 
this is not attended to, many of the seedlings may be lost, and the 
mother plant injured by bleeding, without any compensating 
advantage. 
The removal of the offsets can seldom be well accomplished 
without taking the plants out of the pots, so as to obtain a w r ell- 
separated portion of the old root along with the offset; and if this 
portion has fibres to it, so much the better. These circumstances 
render it at once an independent plant, of which the first planting 
is analogous to the transplanting of a seedling. 
The suckers of Auriculas are always firmty attached to the 
mother root ; and, therefore, in the case of a plant which it is 
desirable to multiply in this way as much as possible, the best 
plan is to divide the root longitudinally with a fine-edged knife, 
so that each division may have upon it as many uninjured fibres 
as possible : and though the use of the knife may not be absolutely 
necessary, the removal of the mother plant may be required in 
order to ascertain -whether it is so or not; and the knife is always 
necessary when the suckers cannot be got off without injuring the 
