THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 175 



adjoining houses, only linger out a miserable existence, and which 

 frequently is occasioned by the plants being kept standing in pans, 

 into which the water is poured when the plants are supposed to re- 

 quire watering ; whereas, whenever water is given, it should be gently 

 poured on the top of the earth in the pot. But as it is indispensable 

 to have pans under the pots in sitting-rooms, small pans should be 

 turned upside down within them, upon which to place the plants, 

 and this precaution will prevent such water as may percolate 

 through the soil from again reaching the pot in which the plant is 

 growing ; and all cultivators of window plants will find it by far the 

 saTest plan to give too little rather than too much water during the 

 winter time, for the plants themselves will give notice when they 

 are in much want of water by their leaves beginning to droop, while 

 the eft'ect of over-watering is oftentimes not discovered till the 

 health of tlie plant has been seriously affected ; therefore, attention 

 to this point is one of the most important in window gardening. 

 It is, however, impossible to say how often plants should be watered, 

 or how much at a time should be given them, as the same- plant 

 would require more or less according to circumstances ; that is, in 

 regard to the temperature of the room, and the degree of activity 

 with which the plant may happen to be growing at the time. It 

 must also be observed that the temperature of the water used in 

 watering the plants should be at least equal to that of the room, 

 and when the plants begin to grow in the spring, increase the 

 quantity with growth and sun's power, keeping the soil at all times 

 in a medium state of moisture. Afterwards, when the plants are 

 growing fast, a more copious supply of water should be given daily, 

 and which, if possible, should be given either in the evening or first 

 thing in the morning, but never during the middle of the day in 

 hot dry weather, if it can be avoided. When autumn arrives, 

 decrease the supply of moibture with the length of day and the 

 returning torpidity of the plant, until the dry state for the winter 

 is again reached : afterwards the plants will require but little 

 moisture, but should occasionally, during the winter, have the surface 

 of their leaves wiped gently over with a wet sponge, to remove any 

 dust and keep the surface clean. Many cultivators are quite uncon- 

 scious of the injury plants receive by a sudden change from that 

 state in which they have been long kept to one of an opposite 

 tendency — such as from drought to a bountiful supply of moisture, 

 or from dark to light, such as placing plants out in the sun without 

 their being first gradually inured to the light and air. Again, in 

 M'inter, plants are frequently kept in too warm a part of the sittin^^- 

 r()om,fortheyneednot be removed from the window during frost, unless 

 it be very severe, and then being placed on the fioor near the middle 

 of the room and covered with a piece of baize will suffice, as they 

 will be safe where water placed beside tiiem merely begins to freeze. 

 Camellias, and similar hard-wooded and stifi'-leaved plants, will even 

 bear the soil in the pots being a little frozen, and frequently the 

 cause of camellias losing their blossom-buds is from their being 

 kept in too warm a part of the sitting-room in severe weather, and 

 consequently in too dry an atmosphere, finally, you must never 



