222 THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST, [ OCTOBEE, 



before their natural season of flowering, is essential for obtaining fertility of 

 bloom, especially in smaller plants of excessive vigour. The greater the consti- 

 tutional tendencies to an excessive flow of sap, manifested by grossness and 

 robustness of habit, the more severe, though gradual, should be the application 

 of means to retard growth, and elaborate the secretions for a period sufficiently 

 extended to induce bloom-buds ; and their full development should bo secured 

 by an after application of genial temperature. 



Again, healthy action or exercise is not more essential to sustain appetite in 

 the human frame than is a season of rest necessary for the maturation of growth 

 in plants, this, again, being essential to their fertility, either in regard to the pro- 

 duction of flowers or fruit. It will hence be readily inferred that, while it is 

 important that ornamental plants of large or robust growth should, where a fine 

 display is looked for, be allowed to attain their matured size, yet, by a judiciously 

 regulated management, such as a restriction to given-sized pots, proper modifica- 

 tions of heat, light, water, &c., and the absence of any special stimulus to growth, 

 it is possible in the majority of cases to obtain a relative amount of bloom from 

 smaller plants of. species naturally large-growing. It is in the forgetfulness of 

 these important facts in the cultivation of plants, that it has often happened that 

 beautiful species have been so mismanaged as to lead to disappointment, a corre- 

 sponding amount of bloom being expected from plants only grown to one-half 

 their natural size, and this without any regard to the means requisite for maturing 

 the growth so obtained. Thus too often comparatively large half-grown plants, 

 of vigorous character, have been discarded, for the sole reason that the plants did 

 not produce the desired effect, the reason all the while being that they had been 

 subjected to a course of treatment perfectly inadequate to produce it. 



For summer decoration, in large pots, or for planting-out as pillar ornaments, 

 trainlncr up large rafters, or as single portable specimens, F. cor^mhijlora is one 

 of the grandest plants known. After the season's growth and bloom, the plants 

 should be gradually exposed, so as to mature and harden their shoots ; the 

 supply of water must also be diminished, and the plants eventually removed to a 

 dry, sheltered position, vrhere they may be preserved from the influence of frost 

 until spring. When again about to be started into growth, the balls of soil 

 should be well soaked, and the sap slowly excited before the old soil is reduced, 

 or fresh-surfaced, or they are shifted into larger pots ; and, as a general rule 

 applicable to large full-grown plants, one liberal early-spring or summer shift to 

 a larger pot should be considered sufficient for the season's bloom. Young or 

 medium-sized plants from which flowers are required should, after a partial excite- 

 ment of the growth, receive a rich surface-dressing upon the liberal-sized autumn 

 .shift, or otherwise should be restricted to one early-spring shift into a larger pot. 

 The period of maturing the early summer's growth, by diminishing the ordinary 

 stimulus to vegetation, as an inducement to bloom, must be regulated by the 

 vigour of the growth. 



As an admonitory hint against over-potting plants of cxoessivo vigour, it may 



