294 
AURICULA. 
AURORA BOREALIS. 
cies cultivated in Great Britain is about thirty-| the little flower-plots of the cottage, or the small 
two; but all are so tender as to require either 
the hothouse or the greenhouse. Most of the 
species bear a close resemblance to the orange- 
tree and the lemon-tree; their leaves are thick, 
articulated with the footstalks, and replete with 
fragrant oil; their flowers are odoriferous; their 
fruit is fleshy, and generally eatable; and their 
timber is very close-grained. 
AURICULA,—botanically Primula auricula. 
A well-known small, evergreen, herbaceous, 
flowering-plant, of the primrose genus. It was 
formerly called Awrrcula urst, or bear’s ear; but 
is now universally recognised as a primula, and 
popularly known as the auricula. Though so 
very common as to be seen in almost every cot- 
tage garden, it retains favour with the most fas- 
tidious flower-fanciers, holds everywhere the rank 
of a florist’s flower, and is, in fact, an universal 
favourite. It is a native of Switzerland, and was 
introduced to Great Britain in 1596. Four well- 
established or quite permanent varieties are 
known to botanists, called lutea or the yellow, 
calycantha or the coloured-calyxed, integerrima 
or the most entire, and hortensis or the garden- 
variety ; but the number of tolerably distinct 
varieties is very great, and that of fugitive varie- 
| ties is, for any thing we know, almost infinite. 
Every year, since the date of cultivation by arti- 
| ficial sowing, appears to have produced vast num- 
bers of new varieties, differing from one another 
in the shape, size, and disposition of the leaves, 
| and especially in the shape, size, and colour of 
the flowers; and very frequently the varieties 
which are most admired when they first appear, 
are disesteemed, neglected, and consigned to ex- 
tinction in the course of a few years. In fact, 
the same childish and capricious fashion which 
always regulates the cut of ladies’ dresses, and 
| which has of late years luxuriated among the 
sportings of the hybrid violet, the calceolaria and 
the dahlia, and which formerly attempted to 
anemone, and the tulip, has, for upwards of a 
eontury, alternately patrenized and banished 
thousands of varieties of the auricula. But to 
any florist, whose taste is natural, and spurns 
the dictum of caprice,a most beautiful and ever- 
pleasing collection of auriculas may very easily 
_ be obtained. Miller, whom all old florists still 
regard as an oracle, states, as the characters of 
a good auricula,—that the stem of the flower 
should be lofty and strong,—that the footstalk 
of the flower should be short, and the umbel re- 
gular and close,—that the pipe or neck of each 
flower should be short, and the flowers large, re- 
gularly spread, and not inclinable to cup,—that 
that the eye of the flower be large, round, and of 
a good white or yellow,—and that the tube or 
neck be not too wide. The flowers appear in 
April and May ; and, when tolerably well assorted 
| as to colours, have a most joyous appearance in 
H 
dictate to the sportings of the hyacinth, the 
the colours be very bright and well-mixed,— 
flower-gardens of the farmery,—more so, to our 
taste, than when they fill beds or stages in the 
most luxurious modes of horticulture. Amateur 
florists and high fancy gardeners, in order to pro- 
cure the finest possible blooms, practise scores of 
niceties in the culture of the auricula; but any 
cottier may propagate a good plant, and maintain 
it in very nearly the best flowering condition, 
simply by lifting it in the first week of every 
August, cutting it into two or three by vertical 
sections of the root, and transplanting the parts 
into good garden soil, enriched with tolerably 
strong and well-rotted manure. Propagation 
from seed is requisite, of course, for new varie- 
ties; but is so troublesome and tedious as to be 
a proper employment for only the amateur or the 
regular practical gardener. 
AURORA BOREALIS. We often see in 
the north, near the horizon, usually a short 
time after sunset, a dark segment of a circle, 
surrounded by a brilliant arch of white or fiery 
light ; and this arch is often separated into 
several concentric arches, leaving the dark seg- 
ment visible between them. From these arches, 
and from the dark segment itself, in high lati- 
tudes, columns of light, of the most variegated 
and beautiful colours, shoot up towards the 
zenith, and, sometimes, masses like sheaves of 
light are scattered in all directions. The ap- 
pearance is then splendid; and its increasing | 
beauty is announced by a general undulation of | 
the masses of light. A kind of fiery coronet is 
afterwards formed about the zenith, by the meet- | 
ing of all the columns of light, resembling the 
knob of a tent. At this moment, the spectacle 
is magnificent, both for the multiplicity and | 
beauty of the columns which the aurora presents. 
The light, after this, grows fainter and more 
tranquil. This faintness and tranquillity, how- 
ever, are only temporary, for the phenomena are 
soon repeated in all their beauty—the oscillation 
of the columns of light, the formation of the 
corona, and the like, though with a thousand 
variations. At length, the motion wholly ceases, 
the light is collected about the northern horizon, 
the dark segment vanishes, and nothing is left 
but a strong brightness in the north, which is 
lost in the dawning day. These brilliant appear- 
ances are also attended, in high latitudes, with 
loud noises, described as resembling the hissing 
and crackling of fire-works. This appearance 
has received the name of northern light, because, 
on account of our position on the earth, we see 
it only about the north pole. A similar appear- 
ance, aurora australis, was seen about the south 
pole, in 1773, by Cook’s sailors, between 58° and 
60° S. lat., and later travellers have observed the 
same. These phenomena ought, therefore, pro- 
perly to be called polar lights—Philosophers are 
of different opinions as to the cause of the aurora. 
It is, however, satisfactorily ascertained to be 
within the region of our atmosphere. Hell as- 
