74 ON THE CULTURE AND PROPAGATION 



It is a well known, though much neglected, fact, that all plants 

 must have, shorter or longer, a period of entire rest and repose ; were 

 the amateur to keep this fact constantly before him he would have 

 much fewer losses to regret, and a far healthier collection than is too 

 generally the case. That this rest, or repose, is necessary, we have 

 only to point to all nature around, and ask what it is that imparts to 

 winter its dull and deathlike appearance? We answer, nothing but 

 this universal sleep of nature — this cessation from the vigour and 

 activity of spring and summer. Now, in this instance, as in all 

 others of a like nature, if the cultivator will have success, he must 

 copy nature, for he may rest assured that she does nothing in vain ; 

 and in proportion to the faithfulness in which she is followed will the 

 measure of success be. It must ever prove a vain and abortive course 

 to force on the growth of plants when they ought to he dormant. 

 In this state of hybernation they are collecting a store of nourishment 

 which, when the proper season arrives, will enable them to perform 

 all the various functions for which they are eminently adapted. 

 Having attained the truth of this natural principle, of vegetable re- 

 pose, it can be turned to good account in the artificial way in which 

 plants, for the most part, must be kept in our plant structures. We 

 can assist, hasten, retard, or complete the work, as circumstances 

 may dictate, and seeing that this is the most favourable condition for 

 plants sustaining unhurt the rigour and severity of winter, the culti- 

 vator will at once perceive the importance of observing this, and 

 allowing his plants to come into this condition before the strength of 

 winter overtake them in a growing and succulent condition ; and, 

 moreover, they will require to be treated while in this condition 

 almost as if they were dead ; they require no stimulants whatever, 

 for if heat and water were to be administered at this season, a spring 

 time is created in the house while there is little sunlight, and a cold 

 dull winter abounds without. Through this perversion of an universal 

 law, plants are not allowed the necessary rest, but are forced to 

 dwindle on, for they cannot be said to grow, and are robbed of all 

 the material necessary to promote vigour; hence, every expectation 

 is blasted, every hope frustrated, through ignorance of a principle 

 which may be seen in full operation, by all who choose to use their 

 senses. Nothing than this is more common among amateur culti- 

 vators ; they are anxious to anticipate, while they commit a fatal 



