pit that is very dry with a hard bottom, and so contrived that wet shall run off when it 

 runs through the pots; give air in mild weather by entirely removing the lights, but v/heu 

 the winds are cold or boisterous, or the rain cold' as well as when frosty, keep the lights 

 on and close down, or tilted a little on the side or end opposite the weather. What is re- 

 quired is steady growth without checks. 



When the pots are filled with roots let the plants be shifted to those of a larger size, 

 and remove all the side shoots or suckers with a sharp knife, or by pulling off without 

 disturbing the ball of earth any more than can be helped. You want all the growth in one 

 central heart or plant, and nothing to detract from it. They may then be returned to the 

 frame, and greater care should be taken than ever to prevent a check. Also the suckers 

 must be removed directly as they appear, and not be allowed to grow at all. If the shift be- 

 fore is from forty-eights to thirty-twos, they must next be changed to twenty-fours, and 

 from these to sixteens, but the latter shift may not be required till the spring. The rule 

 is to shift them when the roots begin to mat or cross one another next the side of the pot. 

 It may happen that in March or April they throw up their flower stem, and the instant 

 they show this the ball should be examined, to see if the roots reach the side; if they do, 

 give them another shift, whatever size they may be in, and water freelj', but never let 

 them be watered when the soil is moist. They are now doubly sensible of a check, and 

 therefore require the more care. They like to be cool, but never cold. If they bloom the 

 first spring after planting, it is never so large as when they go over a second; but with 

 care the bloom of a first spring is twice the size of those we are used to see in plants neg- 

 lected in the ordinary way, by being thrust with other half-hardy things in a cold frame, 

 sometimes only half glazed, sometimes open in bad weather, and at other times closed in 

 mild. Continue to remove suckers or offsets until the bloom is over. Those plants which 

 do not throw up their flower must be attended to in the same way throughout a second 

 season, and during the summer months must not be subjected to the full influence of the 

 sun all day. They should be placed on a dry bottom, where they will have only the morn- 

 ing and evening sun, and not the full mid-da}" beams, for it onl}^ dries up their roots next 

 the pot, and checks them as fatally as frost would in winter. Nor must they be exposed 

 to heavy rains. The best management through the summer is to keep them in the pots, 

 but to cover them in the middle of the day with the glass, tilted all round, and a slight 

 transparent cloth upon the glass. We are prepared to hear many saj^ this is taking a 

 great deal of useless trouble, but if they will try a few this wa}^, and let the others remain 

 neglected as usual, with the offsets accumulating in the pots, and the plants sometimes wet 

 and sometimes dr}^ sometimes burning in the sun, and at other times perished with the 

 frost or cold winds, they will soon admit that they have never seen the Agapanthus um- 

 bellatus in its true character; for in perfection it is a noble plant. 



Orange akd Lemon Trees. — There is something aristocratic in the appearance of an 

 orange or lemon tree, and although they require no more pains than man}' plants which 

 are nursed and taken great care of, there is nothing much more neglected. In all estab- 

 lishments there are some overgrown, long-legged, pot-bound plants, that exhibit all the 

 symptoms of neglect or positive ill-usage; generally speaking, the mould they are in is 

 sour and clogged together, the roots half rotted, the trunk or stem covered with scale or 

 vermin of other kinds, the leaves small and yellow. If we see younger plants, that have 

 only been in tlie country a year, it is the same so far as it has been carried; at the proper 

 season they are not potted; they are making stunted growth, or are otherwise neglected, 

 ther it is that the plant is misunderstood, or they are considered not worth the trou- 

 ot one place in twenty is a proper asylum for these trees; and when they aie intro- 



