THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



201 



cumbers and melons, full of them without 

 the slightest injury to the principal crop. 

 The place being provided, prepare a quan- 

 tity of light soil, such as leaf-mould and 

 loam, or old mushroom dung and loam, in 

 equal quantities. Put this through a half- 

 inch sieve, and place it in the house ready 

 for use. 



Next, prepare a quantity of moss ; this, 

 if matted together will be better of being 

 prepared by beating the same as plasterers 

 prepare hair for hair mortar. All being 

 i- sady, shake out and divide the plants, 

 then place a small portion of moss on the 

 palm of the left hand, over that some soil, 

 then the plant ; cover the roots with more 

 soil, and then double the moss up, and tie 

 securely. For tying, matting or string 

 may be used, but a much more expeditious 

 and safe plan is to use thin iron wire. This 

 may be purchased at 4;/. to 6d. per pound, 

 and a pound of wire will tie from 400 to 

 700 plants, according to its strength and 

 the size of the balls of the plants. It is 

 not necessary to have the wire galvanized, 

 as, by the time the wire decays, the roots 

 will have taken such hold of the moss as 

 to prevent its falling apart. As the plants 

 are mossed, let your assistant begin to lay 

 them in the light soil previously spoken of. 

 The distan2e at which they are placed apart 

 will depend upon the size of the plants, 

 but generally, in the row, the balls may be 

 placed so as to touch each other, and have 

 a little breathing space allowed between 

 the rows. In this, the first station, the 

 plants will stand until they have rooted in 

 the new soil, been stopped, and made new 

 shoots ; and if stock is wanted, it may be 

 necessary to stop them a second time. 

 After they have made the second growth, 

 the plants are fit to remove to a cooler 

 place, for I suppose that, so far, they are 

 in a forcing-house. At the time of removal 

 to a cooler house, the soil should be dry 

 rather than otherwise, so that after they 

 are replanted, packed with fresh compost, 

 and watered, they will feel little of the 

 check. This shift I suppose to be into a 

 cool greenhouse vinery or pit, and here the 

 plants will remain until April, at which 

 time they may again be removed into a 

 cold pit, with temporary covering, or, what 

 is now so much recommended, a tiffany- 

 house. No doubt a house of this kind 

 would be found exceedingly useful in every 

 establishment, not only for protecting 

 bedding plants, but also for fuchsias, ca- 

 mellias, azaleas, etc., at the present time, 

 and especially in a season like this, when 

 it has been almost impossible to trust a 

 plant of value to the drenching rains we 



have lately had. Mr. Standish tells us of 

 the frost-resisting power of this tiffany 

 covering ; but the frost-resisting qualities 

 will depend more upon the size of the 

 house than the material it is covered with. 

 Thus, for illustration, if a house contained 

 a volume of say 5500 cubic feet of air, it 

 might, if it was tolerably air-proof, and 

 was shut up warm the preceding day, con- 

 tain sufficient caloric to resist a frost of 

 6° or 8° below the freezing-point ; but if 

 it contained 500 feet only, then it would 

 be frozen through and through. This is 

 the reason why glass walls failed in pro- 

 tecting plants, though orchard-houses suc- 

 ceeded ; and this is the reason why my 

 lord's conservatory may pass unscathed 

 through a cold night without fire, while 

 in the small house at the rectory the plants 

 are all frosted. It is not the heat-preserving 

 property of the covering, but the quantity 

 of heat stored up in the atmosphere, which 

 is the real protecting power. 



For the formation of cuttings, various 

 directions are given. One man says, take 

 them off with a heel of the parent branch ; 

 a second directs to cut just below a joint ; 

 while a third will lay great stress upou the 

 direction in which this sectional cut is 

 made. For my own part, I pay but little 

 attention to any of these directions, for I 

 once knew a gardener who, when he cut 

 his pelargoniums down in the autumn, 

 would set a boy to place the ends evenly 

 and the branches together in bundles, and 

 then with a long sharp knife (he used abdl- 

 hook) he would cut the bundles into lengths 

 of three or four inches each, and thus th« 

 cuttings were formed. This may be called 

 the rough-and-ready system, but still it is 

 near enough for common things, and where 

 plants, as for market purposes, are required 

 by the thousand. Now, if I were pressed, 

 I should say there is only one secret in 

 connection with cutting making, especially 

 of geraniums. All propagators are aware 

 that the great enemy to successful striking 

 is stagnant moisture, either on the cutting 

 or in the atmosphere surrounding it, and 

 yet, at the same time, it is indispensable 

 that the atmosphere be kept so moist as 

 to prevent the juices of the plant being 

 carried off. How is this to be managed ? 

 If you syringe too much the water hangs 

 about the cutting, and it quickly rots, and 

 if you do not syringe, the cuttings flag for 

 the want of mois ture. Now, if you take a 

 cutting fresh from the plant, and hold it 

 vertic dly in your hand, you will see that 

 at the. base of each leaf-stalk, especially 

 the most recently formed ones, are two 

 little bracts, no doubt intended by nature 

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