THE FLORAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 139 



mimulua, lobelias, herbaceous spireas, and others that the reader will 

 think of without our needing to name them, should be thoroughly soaked 

 at regular intervals while dry weather lasts ; and in a large collection of 

 plants it will be better to give all that can be spared to certain selected 

 subjects, and none at all to the general out-door stock, than to waste the 

 supply hj any attempts at general watering. Plants under glass have 

 suffered considerably where gardeners have been careless or too busy in 

 planting and other work to put up shading, and make such arrangements 

 as the fierce summer-heat required. We had a mishap ourselves through 

 sheer negligence. A fine lot of potted strawberries, loaded with fruit and 

 with leaves like cabbages, were doing wonders in an airy lean-to facing 

 full south. They wanted water, the thermometer went up to 100", and 

 the whole lot perished as completely as if they had been put over a lime- 

 kiln. They ought then to have been standing in pans, and the pans 

 filled with fresh short dung, and the plants allowed to root through to 

 the moist nitrous manure to swell their fruit, and keep them sturdy till it 

 was ripened. The placing of the pans was deferred, a moment of hard 

 trial came, and the leaves fell like bundles of rags, and never rose again. 



Here we remember a remark we were about to make on plants of 

 marshy and half-aquatic habit grown in pots. Ordinary watering is not 

 sufficient ; they should stand in water while kept by force of weather at 

 a high temperature ; but beware of plunging any potted plant, though it 

 be the thirstiest of the thirsty, to the rim. Two inches depth is plenty for 

 the largest-sized ; this -will at least keep the crocks quite wet, and the 

 roots will drink all they require by capillary attraction. We have found 

 in growing grasses, sedges, ferns, and other plants that habitually locate 

 themselves on the margins of ponds and streams, that to plunge them 

 deep was unsafe, but to stand them on inverted pots in tanks or orna- 

 mental water gave them a vigour unattainable by any other method. All 

 kinds of emergencies occur at this time of year in places where the work 

 is heavy, and one not unfrequent is the necessity to give water under 

 glass while the sun shines fiercely. Such a time should never be chosen 

 for watering ; but if it must be done, shut up first, and as long as you do 

 not give air yon may use water with impunity. 



As a rule, plants of rajiid seasonal growth, which usually have long 

 periods of rest, need an abundant supply of water during the period of 

 their acti^sT-ty. Young gardeners are apt to think that plants especially 

 fond of water need not be so carefully drained as those of drier habit, but 

 this is a dangerous fallacy. In potting plants that are to be liberally 

 supplied with driak, it would be safer to use a handful or more extra 

 crocks than to use any less than the sized pot would ordinarily require, 

 for a soddened state of the soil causes it to become sour, and then there 

 can be little hope of a healthy growth. The frequent passage of water 

 through the soil in a pot well drained will certainly wash the goodness 

 oat of it, but that may be made amends for by mulching with fresh sheep 

 or goats' dung, or by occasional thin sprinklings of guano, or even of a 

 mixture of soot and salt ; the last-named stimulant to be used with caution, 

 and never in greater quantity at a time than to just make a film on the 

 surface. Stove plants badly drained suffer most of any, because the high 

 temperature causes the soil to sour immediately if holding stagnant water, 

 and plants newly shifted must have the help of the syringe, and by causing 

 a dew in the house by wetting the pavement and the beds, rather than 



