March  21,  1901. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  ALL  COTTAGE  GARDENER 
241 
Tlje  Auricula. 
It  is  stated  by  some  observers,  that  when  some  of  our  migratory 
birds  are  kept  in  confinement,  when  the  period  of  migration  approaches 
they  become  reetless,  and  however  contentedly  they  may  have  lived  in 
their  cages,  they  begin  to  ruffle  their  feathers  and  stretch  themselves 
as  if  preparing  for  flight.  They  think  of  the  home  they  have  had 
in  distant  lands,  and  make  vain  efforts  to  reach  it.  And  so  it  happens 
that  when  I  reach  the  season  when  my  Auricula  plants  used  to  begin 
to  move,  I,  too,  become  restless,  and  as  I  look  upon  the  pit  where  my 
plants  were  carefully  housed,  and  think  how  busy  I  used  to  be  with 
them  in  these  early  spring  months,  a  longing  comes  over  me  to  be 
once  more  engaged  in  the  pleasant  task  of  preparing  them  for  their 
Mr.  Headley,  of  Stapleford,  near  Cambridge,  was  another  of  the  raisers 
of  old  times.  He  has  left  behind  him  one  which  I  suppose  will  always 
remain  in  the  very  forefront  of  all  Auriculas.  He  named  it  after  his  friend 
Geo  ge  Lightbody,  and  Headley’s  George  Lightbody  will  be  allotted 
He  first  place  by  all  Auricula  growers.  He  raised  others,  such  as 
Stapleford  Hero;  but  they  have  all  passed  into  oblivion.  Coming 
down  to  more  recent  times,  we  have  in  the  North  such  men  as  the 
Rev.  F.  D.  Homer  and  Ben  Simonite,  who  have  been  hard  at  work 
for  years,  and  whose  gains  (lew  in  number)  have  found  their  way 
into  our  lis’s. 
The  Show  Auricula,  as  is  well  known,  is  divided  into  four  classes — 
viz.,  green  edged,  grey  and  white  edged,  and  seifs,  and  when  anyone 
saves  seed  and  raises  seedlings  the  greater  portion  of  them  are  sure  to 
be  seifs.  The  most  highly  prized  are  the  greeu  edged  varieties,  the 
AURICULAS  :  1,  Mas.  Henwood,  gbeen  edge  ;  2,  Midnight,  self  ;  3,  Dean  Hole,  Alpine. 
eummerj  growth  and  expansion.  But  it  cannot  be.  They  have  all 
passed  out  of  my  possession,  and  I  can  only  live  upon  the  memories 
of  the  past.  How  pleasant  those  memories  are,  and  what  great 
enjoyment  I  used  to  derive  from  my  small  collection  !  I  am  afraid 
that  it  is  only  amoDgst  a  small  band  of  zealots  the  plant  will  ever  be 
popular.  Its  flowers  are  too  formal,  its  properties  too  rigidly  laid 
down,  ever  to  suit  the  taste  of  those  who  can  only  see  beauty  in  those 
plantB  which  can  lend  themselves  to  the  decoration  of  our  houses  or 
to  the  adornment  of  our  persons.  Thus  the  Auricula  fares  badly  in 
the  modern  growth  of  aestheticism.  You  cannot  even  make  a  button¬ 
hole  of  one  of  its  trusses,  and  it  is  hopelessly  out  of  place  in  any 
arrangement  for  our  rooms. 
It  is,  however,  a  flower  which  has  many  advantages  to  those  who 
cultivate  it.  The  varieties  are  not  many,  nor  are  they  likely,  as  far 
as  one  can  see,  to  be  largely  increased  in  number.  Mr.  Lightbody, 
of  Falkirk,  was  for  a  long  number  of  years  engaged  in  raising 
seedlings,  but  he  only  left  three  or  four  varieties  to  perpetuate  his  name. 
grey  and  white  edged  merge  into  one  another  ;  there  ’"are  some 
distinctly  white  edged  sorts,  such  as  Reed’s  Acme  and  Taylor’s  Glory, 
while  there  are  others  which  are  sometimes  white  and  sometimes  grey. 
The  ambition  of  most  raisers  is  to  obtain  some  striking  green  edged 
variety.  One  disadvantage  in  growing  the  Auricula  is  that  you 
cannot  propagate  it  in  accordance  with  your  wishes.  You  must  leave 
it  to  itself.  The  offsets  are  produced  in  some  varieties  very  sparingly, 
in  others  more  freely  ;  thus  such  kinds  as  Traill’s  Beauty,  and  some  of 
the  seifs,  such  as  Black  Bess,  will  give  you  several  offsets  each  year ; 
there  are  others  which  for  years  will  not  give  you  one.  How 
tantalising  this  is  may  well  be  imagined.  You  have  a  fine  healthy 
plant,  let  us  say,  of  Prince  of  Greens,  and  you  k»k  in  vain  year  after 
year  for  the  production  of  some  offset ;  but  it  will  not  come,  and  you 
have  to  put  up  with  disappointment. 
I  have  been  told,  indeed,  that  if  you  were  to  cut  off  the  head,  and 
leave  the  plant  in  a  close  frame,  you  would  be  rewarded  with  a  crop  of 
offsets  ;  but  it  requires  Spartan  courage  to  do  this,  and  I  have  never 
