511. According to the florist, the properties of a good polyanthus are the following : The tube of the corolla above the calyx should be short, well filled at the mouth with the anthers, and terminate fluted rather above the eye. The eye should be circular, of a bright clear yel low, and distinct from the ground colour below. The ground colour is most admired when shaded with a light and dark rich crimson, resembling velvet, with one mark or stripe in the centre of each division of the limb or border, bold and distinct from the edging down to the eye, where it should terminate in a fine point. The petal should be large, quite flat, and round, excepting the mi nute indentations between each division, which divide it into five (sometimes six) hea•t-like segments. The edg ing should resemble a bright gold lace; it should be bold, clear, and distinct, and nearly of the same colour as the eye and stripes.
Endless are the varieties of polyanthuses; and as they are easily raised from seed, they are generally the first kind of flower that a young florist cultivates. Seed is kept in the shops for sale ; but by sowing this, very few good varieties may be expected. The seeds should be saved only from flowers with large upright stems, producing many flowers upon a stalk, which are large, finely shaped, which open flat, and are not pin-eyed; and all ordinary flowers near to these should be cut over, to avoid any inter mixture of pollen. The seed is ready in June, and the pods should be gathered as they successively ripen. The seed is commonly sown in boxes in January. The seedlings are regularly watered in dry weather, and shaded from the forenoon sun. They are fit for pricking out in the end of May; and they are transplanted, in August and September, to the borders where they are to flower, which should he somewhat moist and shady, and exposed only to the east. A loamy soil answers best. Most of them will flower in the succeeding spring, and then those that are indifferent may be cast out, or translerred to the shrubbery. The select plants, being again transplanted, will bloom in full strength the second year ; and, if the kinds be very good, will, in collective beauty and brilliancy, be little inferior to a show of auriculas.
After this, they must be yearly removed, and the roots must be parted, else the flowers will inevitably degenerate. The truth is, that seedling plants produce stronger and more brilliant flowers than offsets ; and they who would have polyanthuses in perfection must save seed from their finest plants, and sow annually. The best way is, to raise two or three of the finest plants, with a hall of earth attach ed, and to plant them in another part of the garden, where they may be free from intermixture of pollen, and may be regularly watered, attention to watering being found very conducive to the production of vigorous and healthy seed. The plants which thus yield seed are much weakened, and often perish. In some gardens, the choice flowers are al: ways kept in pots.
Snails and slugs infest polyanthuses in the spring of the year, and should be watched in the morning. In sum mer the red spider often forms its webs on the rough under side of the leaves, which is indicated by their be coming yellow and spotted. if the plants thus attacked be not removed, the whole polyanthus bed will be destroyed.
An effectual cure is found in soaking the foliage of the diseased plants for two or three hours in an infusion of tobacco leaves, and planting them at a distance from the others.
4uricula.
512. The Auricula is a native of the Italian Alps ; and there the most common colour is yellow, but it occurs also purple and variegated, with a white powdery eye. The varieties raised by florists are innumerable ; many of them are of great beauty, and some extremely curious. Parkin son, in 1629, names twenty varieties, and mentions that there were then many more. Rea, in his Flora, 1702, de scribes several new sorts raised by himself and cotemporary florists. A century afterwards, Maddock's catalogue enu merates nearly 500 varieties.
513. The properties of a fine auricula are the following: The stem should be strong, upright, and of such a height that the umbel of flowers may be above the foliage of the plant. The peduncles or foot-stalks of the flowers should also be strong, and of a length proportional to the size and number of the blossoms or pips: these should not he fewer than seven, in order that the umbel may be close and regu lar. A pip or single flower consists of the tube, eye, and border ; these should be well proportioned ; if the diame ter of the tube be one part, that of the eye should be three parts, and that of the ‘vhole.flower or pip six parts nearly. The circumference of the border should be round, or at all events not what is called starry. The anthers ought to be large, and to fill the tube ; the tube should terminate rather above the eye; and this last should be very white, smooth, and round, without cracks, and distinct from the ground colour. The ground colour should be bold and rich, equal on every side.of the eye, whether it be in one uniform cir cle, or in bright patches ; it should be distinct at the eye, and only broken at the outer part into the edging. Black, purple, or bright coffee-colour, form excellent contrasts with the white eye ; a rich blue or a bright pink are pleas ing; and in a deep crimson or glowing scarlet, edged with bright green, are concentrated the hopes and wishes of the florist, which however are seldom realised. On the green edge much of the fine variegated appearance of the auri cula depends, and it should be nearly in equal proportion with the ground colour. The dark grounds are generally strewed with a fine white bloom or powder, which gives a rich appearance : the leaves of many sorts are thickly covered with the same kind of powder, which scents des tined by save them from the scorching effects of the sun's rays.