FEBRUARY. 19 



the smaller plants on a shelf or platform next the glass. The nearer 

 they are to the glass, provided they have room to grow, the better 

 they will thrive, all other points of management being properly at- 

 tended to. In very hot weather, which often happens when they 

 are in bloom, shading is necessary. The most useful material for 

 this purpose is a thin sheet of canvass, fastened at the top to a flat 

 piece of wood, and to a roller drawn up with a cord at one end. 

 When the plants require shading, the cord must be loosed from the 

 fastener, and the roller allowed gently to descend down the roof to 

 the front. It will then be at full stretch, and the roller will keep it 

 in its place. 



Artificial Heat. — The only artificial warmth they require is just 

 enough to keep out frost. This is best given by the hot-water 

 system, now almost universally adopted. Though more expensive 

 at the outset than the brick flue, the economy in fuel, and the more 

 genial heat, far outbalance the difference of the first cost. This 

 house so situated, and provided with the means of giving air, shading, 

 and heat, will grow most kinds of plants that require only green- 

 house temperature. There are now such an enormous number of 

 plants of this description, that it is almost impossible to provide a 

 house for each genus, however large it may be. The only genera 

 that must have, if possible, houses to themselves, are Camellias, 

 Ericas or Heaths, and the large family of Pelargoniuns. It is feared 

 that a house for Epacrises will never be afforded, neither is it so abso- 

 lutely necessary ; they will thrive tolerably well amongst other green- 

 house plants, such, for instance, as Boronias, Eriostemons, Helichry- 

 sums, Chorozemas, and other famihes of similar habit, all natives of 

 the same country. 



Soil. — The soil best suited for this handsome genus is peat. By 

 this term the soil found in swamps, and often called peat, is not 

 meant, we c ill that bog-soil. The right kind is that found on our 

 moors, where the common Heath thrives luxuriantl}^. This mixed 

 with a small portion of loam and leaf-mould, and a liberal addition of 

 silver-sand, will suit them well. No one need attempt to grow them 

 without this peat or heath-mould, as it is sometimes called. They 

 will grow in it alone, but not quite so well as with the above additions. 

 The peat should be carted home and put in a place where the sun 

 and frost can act freely upon it. It should be broken up into frag- 

 ments, but not so small as to approach a powdered state. Too fine a 

 soil is injurious to them, excepting when very young. At the time 

 of potting, a sufficient quantity should be taken from the heap, and 

 all extraneous matters, such as large stones, living lumps of turf, or 

 fern-roots, or twigs of heath, all these may be picked out with the 

 hand. By no means sift the peat, unless, as remarked before, for 

 young plants. There is nothing so injurious to plants. Heaths not 

 excepted, as soil made too fine : it soon runs together in a solid mass 

 — is then impervious to water, and becomes sour, and then destroys 

 the young fibrous roots of the Epacris, and in the end causes the 

 plants to turn yellow and die. 



Thomas Appleby. 



