THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



251 



it was uofc allowed to root through the 

 bottom, and it was well fed by manure 

 water ; thirteen peaches were ripened, and 

 these were amongst the best fruit in the 

 house. Early in the autumn, before it 

 shed its leaves, it was taken up, all the 

 earth shaken from its roots, and placed 

 again in the same pot, and it has now 

 seven fine peaches on it. The plant has 

 only three small shoots, is about eighteen 

 inches in height, and is in better health 

 than last year.'' 



No doubt we shall continue to bear of 

 failures in orchard-house management, and 

 such samples of their produce as the mi- 

 serable specimens exhibited at the last 



Crystal Palace Show may deter many for 

 a time from entering on this delightful 

 department of practical horticulture. But 

 the oi'chard-house is too well established 

 to need rindication, and there will always 

 be examples of failure in this, as in every 

 other department of the science. Abundant 

 ventilation, subject to perfect control, the 

 judicious use of liquid manure while the 

 fruit is swelling, and impregnation of the 

 blossoms, are leading points of manage- 

 ment, which we hope all adherents to the 

 system will keep in mind, that the proba- 

 bilities of failure may be lessened, and the 

 system brought to its highest possible 

 position of practical perfection. 



ON THE PEESERVATION OE GEEENHOUSE PLANTS IN 



AVINTEE. 



It is only under fortuitous circumstances 

 that man can possess and enjoy the sweets 

 and pleasures of life, without first incur- 

 ring the labours and cares by which, and 

 through which, such are to be obtained. 

 If a man will have fame he must labour to 

 obtain it — if he will be rich he must not 

 sit idle — if he should be born to possessions 

 he will not be exempt from the care of 

 preserving them from encroachment ; so it 

 is witli those who would enjoy a garden 

 and flowers; they must rear them, and 

 tend them, and preserve them during the 

 winter from the encroachment of enemies, 

 to which they are subject to fall a prey, if 

 uncared for ; these are frost and damp, to 

 which we may add drought and darkness, 

 the two former being far more destructive 

 to the majority of plants tlian the two 

 latter, the last-named being so only when 

 in an excessive degree, that is to say, to 

 plants in a state of rest during the winter 

 months. In order, then, to assist our 

 readers with hints for the preservation of 

 their plants from the above-named ene- 

 mies, it will be well to classify some of the 

 more common and generally cultivated 

 greenhouse and bedding plants, leaving 

 them to modify the instructions according 

 to their means of carrying them out, for, 

 in order to accommodate the number and 

 various habits and characters of what we 

 now cultivate as beddiiuj and greenhouse 

 plants, many imprumptu situations mny be 

 made temporaril3- available as auxiliary to 

 the greenhouse or pit. As the greenhouse 

 will probably be gay with ericas, camellias, 

 cinerarias, violets, cyclamens, lachenalia, 

 chrysanthemumSjCorreas, Primula sinensis, 

 tree carnations, mignonette, etc., with which 



must be associated other plants in free 

 growth, or approaching a flowering state, as 

 tropseolums, acacia, daphne, cytisus, vero- 

 nica, chorozema, azalea, etc., all of which 

 will require all the light the dull days of 

 winter will afford, with a temperature 

 from 5^ to 15^ above the freezing-point, 

 also, a moderate amount of water at the 

 root, but none overhead. It will also be 

 necessary, in dull weather, to sometimes 

 make a fire to dry up damp, in order that 

 the tiowei's may not become mouldy ; ob- 

 serve, however, to give air at the top of 

 the house at the same time. In frosty 

 weather use fire as sparingly as is con- 

 sistent with keeping the frost out, other- 

 wise plants may become drawn. We are 

 supposing that a pit is at hand for the per- 

 servation of the store plants for the flower 

 garden, such as verbena, petunia, young 

 geraniums, etc., which are first struck off 

 and hardened for a few weeks under a 

 south wall ; if not, a few shelves may be 

 placed upon brackets, or suspended from 

 the roof rafters, a few inches from the 

 glass, for their accomodation during the 

 v;inter, and in summer may be taken down 

 and stored away. Most of the geraniums 

 in such a situation would stand almost 

 through the winter without water ; but 

 other things must be fi-equently examined, 

 especially if standing thickly in their pots, 

 to see tliat they do not suffer for want of 

 water. The herbaceous calceolarias and 

 the fancy geraniums will also do well upon 

 sitch a shelf, but the former must some- 

 times be sprinkled over their foliage, as 

 they do not prosper so well in any situa- 

 tion as a cool pit. But to follow out our 

 supposition that a pit of some kind is at 



