36 THE p-RODUCTION OF BLOOM IN INGA PULCHEEEIMA. 



secretions necessary for bloom. As the shoots generally become 

 ripened, the circulation of sap should be sufficiently checked to 

 prevent a premature excitement of the leaf-buds, by placing the 

 plant in the driest and coolest part of the stove, well exposed to 

 light and air. The ordinary watering should be gradually les- 

 sened, and a partial cessation from growth maintained until the 

 ensuing spring. 



Tlie foregoing treatment in the cultivation of Inga pulcherrima 

 is based upon the following principles, which are also applicable 

 to the growth of plants generally whose natural habits are un- 

 favourable to a general formation of flower-buds. 



1. All plants under artificial culture in pots, &c., according 

 to their respective habits and conditions of growth, and the 

 different amounts of soil in which they are grown, are only 

 capable of maturing a certain amount of growth annually, and it 

 is upon a correct estimate of the extent to which such conditions 

 can proceed, in connexion with the period in which growth is 

 attainable, that the amount of fertility depends. 



2. All growth in plants (whatever may be its mean vigour) 

 is deficient in maturity for the purpose or formation of bloom, 

 if, for want of proper training, or due exposure to light, air, 

 heat, or moisture, or the requisite period of repose after growth, 

 or before bloom (as required), it fails to accumulate in its proper 

 season the amount of sap essential to fertility ; and that manage- 

 ment is imjDcrfect which fails to control the circulation of sap by 

 a judicious training of the growth, so as to prevent its excessive 

 accumulation in one branch, or its defective secretion in an- 

 other. 



3. The most general conditions of growtli in plants, consi- 

 dered unfavourable to the formation of flower-buds, may be re- 

 ferred either to an excess or to a deficiency of those vital 

 secretions of nutritive matter necessary to fertility. Where 

 such conditions are present, the remedial influences (other con- 

 ditions being equal) are the follouing: — 1st. Where excess is 

 manifested by too gross and luxuriant growth, exposure to a 

 lower and drier atmosphere, strong light, &c. for a given period 

 previous to the season of bloom, will be efficient. 2nd. Where 

 deficiency is manifested by weak, attenuated growth, and abortive 

 buds, a simple restriction of the growth, by shortening the 

 growing points of each shoot, at the period of the plant's attain- 

 ing its highest vigour, will enable the remaining growth to 

 accumulate the vital secretions essential to fertility. 



4. As the formation of flower-buds in plants depends upon 

 a sufficient amount of nutritive matter being deposited and ma- 

 tured in the growth of the current or previous year, and as the 

 maturity of growth in plants depends upon its partial restraint, 



