REMARKS UPON GROWING SEEDMNG CALCEOLAIUAS. 13 



their youth great caution is requisite not to water-run them ; and, 

 therefore, they should be watered with a very fine rose, or, what is, 

 perhaps, better, with a wet brush, that by passing your fingers quickly 

 over the bristles causes the water to fly off in the form of small rain ; 

 this I have found a very good and safe mode of watering when the 

 plants are very young. 



In the course of two or three months the plants will be found in 

 fine condition for removing to pots. At this stage of their treatment 

 I found myself rather embarrassed in disposing of the great quantities 

 of plants which I had raised, as by the time each plant had been 

 potted off into a pot large enough to flower it, my seedlings would 

 have occupied no end of room, and my accommodation for plants not 

 being very extensive, I thus felt bound to restrict myself to a few 

 dozens of seedlings. 



The rest of my young seedlings I was unwilling to cast away, 

 being anxious to prove as many as I could, if not all, under the pro- 

 tection of glass. I last year thought of a plan which proved quite 

 satisfactory. 



Having a great quantity of small pots (sixties) at hand, I procured 

 good old pasture soil, adding a little white sand, and potted off the 

 greater part of my seedlings, all those that had two or three pairs of 

 leaves, and then replaced the pan in its old position as a second crop 

 of them appear, and I have found a second crop produced most good 

 ones. 



I then procured several boxes, about a foot deep, which I filled 

 with good old pasture soil, not sifted, but well broken down ; in these 

 boxes I sunk the little pots up to the rim, and on a level with the 

 edges of the boxes, and there the plants remained till they flowered. 



As the plants grew, they forced their roots down through the pots 

 into the soil below, from which they derived the requisite nourish- 

 ment, and they continued to flower during the summer in the utmost 

 luxuriance, presenting one unbroken mass of flowers of every variety 

 of hue. If any good ones presented themselves, I generally removed 

 them as soon as I perceived them, by raising the small pot out of the 

 box, and then repotted the plant into a large pot; and though the 

 roots had been disturbed that had penetrated through the small pot, 

 yet if the ball of roots be not broken in turning out the plant, it will 

 not flag at all if well watered immediately after. 



