1870.] CULTURE OF PELARGONIUMS. 547 



which should be pinched back in their turn to secure a nice bushy- 

 habit. This course of treatment will lay the foundation of well-grown 

 and symmetrical plants. Continue thus to train and turn about 

 the plants, and remove dying leaves ; repot when the roots reach 

 the sides of the ball as before, using pots two sizes larger to succeed 

 those the plants have occupied. 



By this time the winter will have passed away, and the plants be 

 growing apace. A vinery just started will now be an excellent place 

 in which to stage the plants, near the front ventilation. The tem- 

 perature which best suits the vines at this stage will be that best 

 adapted for the Pelargoniums, so long as it does not rise much above 

 60°. But when it becomes necessary to raise the temperature of the 

 vinery above that point, the plants had better be returned to their old 

 quarters. 



At the time of the next shift, if the plants are in vigorous condition, 

 a little bone-meal (not bone-dust or broken bones, but a fine bone-flour) 

 may be added to the heap of soil in the proportion of about one-tenth. 

 This will stimulate the plants to make considerable growth, and is to 

 be preferred to manure water. 



Up to the time that the leaves begin to colour, pure water should 

 be given ; then, when the leaf-coloration is required, some weak cow- 

 dung water may be given, with a small portion of soot added to it : 

 the last-named material greatly helps the development of colour. 



Diseases. — Only two things bearing this designation, that I am 

 aware of, affect these divisions of the Pelargonium ; the one " spot 

 on the leaves," the other " black-rot." Both of these attack the 

 growth, and invariably result from decay of the foliage. The worst 

 to be eradicated is the spot, as it seems to exist in the blood of the 

 plant ; and my experience leads me to conclude that the malady is 

 communicated by the prevalence of an impure atmosphere or bad 

 ventilation. This, at all events, agrees with my own experience, 

 and I am confirmed in this conviction by invariably finding that not 

 one of the Pelargoniums, from the strongest and most vigorous grower 

 of the ordinary zonal section to the most tender tricolor, will exist for 

 a few weeks in the conservatory here without spot making its appear- 

 ance, and this at all seasons of the year. One of the many faults 

 belonging to the conservatory is defective ventilation. Whether my 

 theory be right or wrong, however, this much is certain, that no sooner 

 are the plants placed in another plant-house, after removal from the 

 conservatory, than they begin to mend, provided their stay in the con- 

 servatory has not been too prolonged, in which case they die of the 

 disease. Some authorities attribute these maladies to over-feeding, 

 and to some extent this may be true ; still I have never experienced 



