FORCING OF LOSES. 187 



exclude tlie frost ; and for tliis purpose dou})le 

 mats should be placed on the lights. The ther- 

 mometer should not, hy fire heat, be higher in the 

 day than 60° during December and January : at 

 night it may sink to 35° without injury. The 

 temporary rise in a sunny day is of no consequence. 

 When the sun begins to have power, and in sunny 

 weather towards tlie end of February, air sliould 

 be given daily, and the plants })e syringed every 

 morning about ten o'clock with tepid water, and 

 smoked with tobacco at night on the last appear- 

 ance of the aphis or green fly. 



To ensure a fine and full crop of flowers, the 

 plants should be established one year in pots, and 

 plunged in tan or sawdust in an open exposed 

 place, so that their shoots are well ripened : the 

 pots must be often removed ; or, what is better, 

 they should be placed on slates to prevent their 

 roots striking into the ground ; but with the 

 Hybrid and Damask Perpetuals, even if only 

 potted in November previous, a very good crop 

 of flowers may often be obtained, and a second 

 crop better than the first; for the great advantage 

 of forcing Perpetual Roses is that after blooming 

 in the greenhouse or drawing-room, their young 

 shoots may be cut down to within two or three 

 buds of their liase, and the plants placed again in 

 the forcing-liouse, and a second crop of flowers 

 obtained. The same mode may be followed also 

 with the Bourbon, China, and Tea-scented Koses; 



