238 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



as the last, and with a mulch of rotten manure an inch thick on the 

 top. Ordinary greenhouse temperature will set them going very 

 early in the spring, and the hlooms will show immediately. Provide 

 some neat green stakes, slender, hut strong, eighteen inches in 

 length, and tie every shoot, as soon as the bloom is visible, loosely 

 to a stake, as when the flowers are fully expanded their weight, 

 when wet with a shower, will sometimes cause them to fall over and 

 break the stems. All they need after this is abundance of water. 

 They can scarcely have too much at the root, or be too much 

 sprinkled overhead. When the roots begin to run upon the surface, 

 assist them with liquid manure, rather strong, once a week, and by 

 this time the blossoms will be expanding and colouring, and after 

 acquiring their proper character, will continue in perfection a longer 

 period than any other plant in our gardens. These plants are not 

 to be shifted again until next spring ; then they are to be cut back 

 to about eight buds from the base, and shifted into ten-inch pots, 

 and they will make enormous specimens. The next year they may 

 be shifted into fifteen-inch pots ; and after that it is not advisable 

 to increase their bulk any further. A few cuttings, to furnish small 

 useful plants, should be put in every year, in April or May ; or, if 

 there be no convenience to Btrike by bottom-heat, they may be 

 rooted under bell-glasses without heat in June ; but it is best to 

 strike them not later than the first week in May to insure the 

 formation of ripe wood for blooming the following year. For ordi- 

 nary purposes the most useful are yearling plants, which, when 

 they have bloomed once, are to be destroyed. To force them is a 

 mere matter of temperature, and they take a moist heat from 

 Christmas onwards as kindly as any greenhouse plant we know of. 



WINDOW GARDENING. 



BY JOHN E. MOLLISON. 

 (Continued from page 208.) 



PERNS FOR WINDOW GARDENERS. 



WINDOW gardener can hardly say his selection of plants 

 is complete without an addition of choice ferns and 

 mosses, either in pots or iu a Wardian case, or under a 

 bell-glass ; and they are always a necessity for a choice 

 rockery. Their feathery growth, graceful habit, and 

 easy cultivation render them general favourites, worthy of your 

 attention, and pleasing ornaments in a stair-landing window, or a 

 window where flowering plants do not succeed for want of sun- 

 light. 



To grow a few select ferns and mosses, in a closed or Wardian 

 case, in such a position, or in the favoured precincts of your sitting- 

 room, is a very pleasant pastime ; and more so when, as in the 

 Warrington case, you have a fernery and aquarium combined. 





