144 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



in a dung-bed frame as anywhere else, with this difference, that 

 after the plants bave sprung, and after they are potted and commence 

 growing, the frame must have a little air night and day, and in bright 

 weather the plants would require shading, or the action of the sun on 

 the leaves of the young plants, when covered with the dense vapour 

 arising from the dung-beds, will mark them with brown blotches, 

 which will mar their beauty, however well they may grow afterwards. 

 In moving the plants from the pans in which they were excited 

 (which should be done when the plants are an inch or two high), 

 they may be transferred into small pots, to be again shifted, or they 

 may be put into their flowering pots at once, which is the method I 

 prefer. In doing so, some cultivators place the requisite number 

 of tubers at regular distances over the pot ; but in general, and 

 especially with such sorts as pedunculata, grandiflora, hirsuta, etc., 

 I prefer bringing all the growing ends of the tubers to the centre 

 of the pot, and piaciug the other ends in a line to the circumference, 

 like the spokes of a wheel, so that the specimen may resemble a 

 single plant, and not a pot full of sDakes. The same plan may be 

 adopted whether one, three, five, seven, or more tubers are employed. 

 When thus potted they must be again placed in heat, and hardened 

 off by degrees to the temperature of the greenhouse. All of them 

 are grateful for a little shade, the leaves being more healthy, and the 

 flowers brighter and hanging longer. A late vinery, where little or 

 no heat is given, or a greenhouse with either vine or creepers up the 

 rafters, is just the place for them. In a glass case, which could be 

 shaded, but where no fire-heat could be applied, I have seen them 

 beautifully in bloom until very cold weather set in during November. 

 Altogether they require no more, if as much, labour to grow as 

 balsams that are fit to be seen ; while, without detracting from the 

 beauty of the latter, the Achimenes cannot be charged with the 

 constant litter that the drooping of the flowers of balsams occasions. 

 If fly makes any appearance on the leaves, smoke with tobacco, 

 moderately and frequently rather than much at a time, and syringe 

 the following evening with clear soot water. The fly which attacks 

 some of them is bad to get rid of, and to kill them in one dose would 

 probably be an overdose for the healthy vitality of the plants. 



HEAT OF PLANTS. 



[jE are aware that warm-blooded animals have the power of 

 keeping up a certain temperature within them, which 

 varies at certain stages of their growth, and perhaps 

 periodically. This result is obtained by respiration — 

 the oxygen of the atmosphere uniting with the carbon 

 of their blood, and producing a species of combustion. The more 

 fresh air we breathe, the greater the heat of our bodies, so long as we 

 take proper food to afford the carbon. A similar, though less under- 

 stood, phenomenon seems to take place in the respiration of plants. 

 Heat is always disengaged when gaseous products are liberated ; 



