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THE SUMMER TREATMENT OF GREEN-HOUSE PLANTS. 



distant, when really talented and skilful 

 gardeners will be more appreciated by the 

 employers in this country than they are at 

 present. And that the gold getting mania 

 which at present prevails, will give place 

 to inquiries and enjoyments more refining 

 and intellectual in their nature, and much 

 more calculated to give dignity and nobility 

 to this great people, than that utilitarian 

 spirit which finds its greatest happiness in 

 the sordid accumulation of dollars and cents. 

 The United States have their Horticultural 

 Societies and Pomological Conventions. 

 Some of them on a grand scale. Yes ! 

 grander than any other society in the world, 

 and nobly supported too. But where is its 

 Botanical, its Horticultural, or its Experi- 

 mental Garden ? It has none. Were I to 

 write to the gardeners of London, or of 

 Edinburgh, that this great people had no 

 national garden, they would not believe me. 

 Yet it is a stubborn fact. Some console 

 themselves with the reflection that the time 

 is not yet come to make such a movement, 

 but many others are keenly alive to the 

 desirability of such a grand object. Thou- 

 sands and tens of thousands of dollars are 

 annually expended upon playhouses and 

 places of public amusement, immeasurably 

 less elevating, instructing, or refining in 

 their tendency than a national or metropoli- 

 tan garden. Let us hope the leading men 

 of this broad country will ere long take this 

 great national want into their consideration, 

 and give the people a Botanical and a Hor- 

 ticultural Garden, with splendid structures 

 wherein the natural productions of other 

 climes may be accumulated, — a garden 

 worthy of this rich and lovely land — and 

 worthy of the enterprising people who pos- 

 sess it. 



The whole mystery in the management 

 of green-house plants in summer is in giving 

 them shade and moisture. The shade 



ought to be elevated above the glass at 

 least 20 inches or 2 feet. This is of great 

 importance, as it admits a free circulation 

 of cool air between the blind and the glass. 

 The atmosphere should be kept cool and 

 moist by evaporation, and this is easily 

 done by syringing water on the floor, on 

 the shelves, on the flues or pipes, among 

 the pots, and on every available surface. 

 By these means I have reduced the temper- 

 ature of the house 15 degrees in a few 

 minutes, and rendering the atmosphere 

 agreeably temperate during the hottest days 

 we have had lately, than which, none could 

 be more trying, yet the plants are luxuri- 

 ating in perfect health and blooming abun- 

 dantly. 



An evil, and a great one, consists in bad 

 soil, and bad drainage. I have been told 

 there is no use for drainage, for the plants 

 require so much water here, and for the 

 same reason fine soil was rammed about 

 their roots, as firm as that about a gate 

 post. Could we have a better argument in 

 favor of free drainage and rough soil. You 

 can water frequently; the water percolates 

 quickly through the soil, the air follows it 

 and keeps the moisture suspended in the 

 mass. The most of summer flowering 

 plants delight in such treatment. It is most 

 essential in matters of artificial culture to 

 take examples from nature. In what con- 

 ditions do we find the most luxuriant tropi- 

 cal vegetation ? In places moist and shaded, 

 where the plants spring up annually among 

 the decayed herbage of the previous season, 

 where the decomposing mass is free and 

 porous, allowing the accumulated moisture 

 to pass off in the season of growth. How- 

 is it possible for the air to circulate, if the 

 pores of the soil are blocked up with water, 

 or where the ball is as hard as a lump of 

 clay. Besides, the water itself will not 

 circulate through a ball of earth, without a 



