THE GERANIUM AND ITS CULTURE. 



77 



a'like. It ought to be mentioned, that by 

 the beginning of April the pots will be full 

 of roots, and that, large as the pots may- 

 be, these enormous plants will require a 

 further shift ; and the only difficulty there 

 is to encounter is in lifting about and hand- 

 ling such cumbrous and weighty subjects. 



TEMPERATURE. 



The geranium should not be subject to 

 checks and changes. In winter time the 

 skill of the gardener is tried most, for there 

 is no little difficulty in regulating the tem- 

 perature so as to keep out frost without 

 the house being at times too warm. It 

 would be well if the temperature never ex- 

 ceeded 40° of a night and 50° by day ; but 

 this is too often reversed. The usual plan 

 is to let them take their chance by day, if 

 there is no frost, and to light fires in the 

 evening, by which the temperature of the 

 house is raised in the dark and lowered by 

 daylight. In summer time, it is true, the 

 sun raises the temperature by day ; but the 

 geranium makes its growth all the winter, 

 when for weeks together we have no sun 

 shining upon the house. The expense of 

 firing is, we suspect, the ruling influence ; 

 and if not altogether so, the trouble regu- 

 lates the rest ; but certain it is that no man 

 lights a fire if he can help it. With gera- 

 niums it is desirable to avoid fire heat alto- 

 gether as much as it is possible ; but so 

 slight a frost is fatal to this plant, that a 

 man dare not risk it in the night, when the 

 glass is getting down too near the freezing 

 point by day ; but it would be far better to 

 use fire by day, so as to warm the house, 

 and let the closing suffice for all the early 

 parts of the night, than keep them very 

 cool all the day and light fires at night. In 

 the culture of these plants it is worth while 

 to have a rolling cloth to come down the 

 glass to the brick-work, so that it may be 

 let down in the evening, instead of lighting 

 fires, for it keeps in the natural warmth 

 many hours, and if attended to at night, 

 and at all times when frost is indicated, the 

 plants would be saved from the necessity 

 of fires, and be all the stronger and better 

 for it. At the same time it must always 

 be borne in mind, that thirty-two is the 

 freezing point, at which they take great 

 damage, if they are not killed outright, and 

 therefore that regard must be had to the 



prevention of too near an approach to that, 

 either by covering or gentle fires, begun, 

 however, in the morning, and not at night ; 

 so also provision must be made that the 

 artificial heat does not raise the tempera- 

 ture above 45° by night at the most. 



NECESSITY OF ROOM AND VENTILATION. 



Few people who have not paid attention 

 to the subject, are aware of the necessity 

 of giving the plants room ; many crowd the 

 pots together so closely that the plants all 

 but touch each other. There is hardly any- 

 thing more detrimental to their general 

 health. It is true, they live, and bloom, 

 and, to ordinary observers, appear very 

 pretty ; but place one of them by the side 

 of a truly healthy plant, and you will ob- 

 serve such a contrast as to excite astonish- 

 ment ; the foliage paler, the leaves small- 

 er, the stems slighter and weaker alto- 

 gether, the flowers thin and distorted ; such 

 are the fruits of keeping plants too close 

 together. There ought to be as much room 

 between one plant and another as half the 

 diameter of the plant, that light and air 

 may not be impeded, but the entire plant 

 be open to the influence of both ; nothing 

 should induce a grower lo crowd them, for 

 it is better to throw half away, and grow 

 the other half well, than to spoil all, 



FUMIGATING THE PLANTS. 



There is no positive rule for this ; it 

 should be done frequently, without waiting 

 for the appearance of the aphides, for when 

 they come it is too late ; mischief is done 

 in a short time by the green fly, even be- 

 fore it can be noticed, except with strict 

 examination. The best mode of fumiga- 

 ting is with coarse strong tobacco, in pro- 

 per fumigating bellows ; but it can also be 

 done with some hot charcoal in a flower- 

 pot, and putting the tobacco in it ; or by 

 putting the nozzle of the common bellows 

 to a hole in the side of a flower-pot, such as 

 are made in many pots for extra drainage, 

 and so blowing the lighted tobacco. The 

 smoke must fill the house completely, even 

 to the ground, which it touches last. The 

 gardener may operate very well till the 

 smoke fills the upper part down to his 

 head ; he may then sit down, and pufT 

 again until it reaches him so much lower ; 

 and he may kneel, and at length lay down, 

 and find no quantity of smoke next the 



