30G THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



pricking off into pots. Before saying anything about this, I will 

 dispose of the question of soil at once, and prevent any unnecesjiary 

 repetitions : for whether for the first, second, or third shift, the same 

 soil will be required. As a proof that I am right in my assertion 

 that these plants are extremely simple in their wants, I will say that 

 I grow them entirely in loam mixed with a little rotten dung. The 

 kind of loam I use is the top three or four inches of an old meadow, 

 cut six or twelve months before it is wanted for use, and stacked up 

 and mixed with about one-fifth of its bulk of rotten manure. By 

 this way the goodness of the manure gets thoroughly incorporated 

 with the loam before it is used ; and I consider it far preferable to 

 mixing a lot of manure at the time of potting ; not that there is any 

 particular harm in mixing the manure and loam together at that 

 time, but it is decidedly the best way to do so when it is first stacked 

 up. Tbe soil should be chopped up before commencing to pot, and 

 every particle of fibre in the loam ought to be preserved, to assist in 

 preventing the soil running together and getting close. It is not 

 weir to chop the soil too fine ; a little judgment upon this point 

 must be exercised by the cultivator: but to take a broad view of the 

 subject, I may safely say that the larger the pot the rougher may 

 the soil be. In no case must it be used in lumps as large as one's 

 fi'st, such as is employed in potting pines and orchids ; a sprinkling 

 of sharp silver-sand should be mixed with the soil at all periods of 

 their growth, but double the quantity will be necessary at the first 

 potting as the plants will then be young and tender, and every en- 

 couragement is necessary to induce them to root quickly. "We have 

 so far disposed of the soil question, and will now turn our attention 

 to the removal of the young plants from the seed-pans. The 

 necessity of sowing the seed regularly will be patent now if it has 

 been sown in clumps, as is often the case. The plants will be drawn 

 up weakly and unable to bear much handling, instead of being 

 chubby little fellows able to stand almost anything. I have two 

 ways of dealing with the young plants, according to my convenience. 

 Sometimes I prick them out into other pans, let them get nicely es- 

 tablished, and then transfer them to small sixties ; at others, I pot 

 them off direct into the small pots. But, as a rule, I pot ofi" the 

 strongest, and prick the weakest into pans, and this is the way I 

 shall recommend here as most worthy of general adoption. It gives 

 the small plants plenty of chance to form nice little clusters of roots 

 before they have to rough it in the pots with the others, and they 

 will not then be long before they get established. The soil in which 

 plants are plnced that are a long time before they fill the pots with 

 roots very often gets sour, and no calceolaria will root in sour soil. 

 So We have to guard agaiust this by treating the plants in the way I 

 have described. At the time of potting, the soil should be in a nice 

 working condition, not too wet or too dry, and the plants should be 

 placed in a cold frame after the operation is completed, and kept 

 close and shaded until they root into the fresh soil, when abundance 

 of air is necessary to keep them thoroughly healthy ; but at no time 

 is it advisable to expose the plants to strong sunshine. Directly 

 these pots are nicely filled with roots, shift into five-inch pots, and 

 keep them close for a few days. 



