MANAGEMENT 175 
advantage. The beginner, however, is more likely 
to keep his house too hot than too cool. He may 
seem at first to be getting a fine quick growth, and 
then wonders why things begin to be lanky, and 
yellow, forgetting that his plants can get no air to 
breathe, except what he is careful enough to give 
to them. For the majority of those plants which the 
beginner is likely to try — geraniums, petunias, 
begonias, fuchsias, abutilon, heliotrope, ferns, etc., 
a night temperature of 45 to 55 degrees, with Io to 
20 degrees higher during the day, will keep them in 
good growing condition during the winter, pro- 
viding they are neglected in no other respect. So 
long as they are not chilled, they cannot have too 
much fresh air during sunny days. Make it your 
aim to keep the temperature as steady as possible — 
the damage done to plants is as often the result of 
sudden changes in temperature as of too high or too 
low a temperature. 
If it is easy to overdo in the matter of temper- 
ature, it is even more so in watering. A soil such 
as described above, when watered, will absorb the 
water rapidly, and leave none of it standing upon 
the surface of the pots after a few moments. Prac- 
tice, and practice only, can teach just when the soil 
has been sufficiently saturated. It should be wa- 
tered until wet clear through, but never until it 
becomes muddy. And when watered it should not 
be watered again until dry — not baked and hard, 
