274 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



the flowers show to greater advantage. When portable specimens 

 are grown, put them on the trellis some time in March, and leave 

 them there until the flowers are past, and then return them to 

 the roof. 



It is difficult, if not impossible, to say when the next shift will 

 be required, in a case like this, where everything depends upon the 

 progress each individual specimen makes, for it is no use to repot 

 them before they are well rooted. With ordinary treatment they, 

 however, will he in proper condition for repotting early in June. Use 

 pots two sizes larger, and be very particular in having them properly 

 drained, as this shift will have to carry them through the whole of 

 the next year; and no stove plant is more impatient of having 

 stagnant moisture or sour soil about the roots than the one we are 

 now dealing with. A compost, consisting of equal parts fibrous 

 peat, turfy loam, and rotten cow-dung, is the best that can possibly 

 be had, when mixed with a sixth part of sharp silver-sand, or good 

 drift-sand, washed clean. The peat and loam must be broken up 

 roughly, and if it has been laid in a heap a few months previously to 

 using, its value will be enhanced. 



A temperature of about GO is advised as desirable to begin with ; 

 this must be continued to the end of the month, when a rise of 

 5" may be allowed. This will not necessitate an increase of fire- 

 heat, as the sun will have gained sufficient strength to bring the 

 temperature up to the desired height without artificial aid. This 

 can go on until about the middle of May, when fire-heat can be 

 dispensed with, excepting a little to warm the pipes in the evening, 

 to maintain a comfortable warmth during the night ; but the night 

 temperature always ought to be five or ten degrees lower than the 

 warmth of the house during the day. . From the beginning of June 

 until the end of August, no fire-heat whatever will be necessary, 

 unless the summer happen to be wet and cold. 



The plants ought to be steadily settling down to rest after the 

 commencement of September, and a temperature of 60" will be 

 quite sufficient to keep them in health. If they are subjected to a 

 greater warmth than that specified above, it will force them into a 

 second growth, and do irreparable injury. During the winter, 

 which we will suppose to begin in October, and end in March, 50 1 

 will be quite high enough ; and from that time onwards, the tem- 

 perature of the respective seasons must be the same as I have 

 already advised, so that it is not necessary to say anything farther 

 about that part of the treatment. 



In the first Week of March of the second year, top-dress with the 

 soil recommended above, and slightly increase the supply of water 

 to the roots, when, with the aid of an occasional skiff from the 

 syringe overhead, they will speedily start into growth. The pots 

 into which they were shifted in June will carry them through this 

 year ; but it will be well to shift into one size larger in the spring 

 of the third year. 



Syringe regularly morning and afternoon throughout the grow- 

 ing season, excepting when in bloom, as the water would, of course, 

 soon spoil the flowers. When growing briskly, a somewhat liberal 



