ON TREATMENT OF STOVE PLANTS IN WINTER. 215 



ARTICLE V. 



ON THE TREATMENT OF STOVE PLANTS IN WINTER. 



{Extracted from a Paper read before the Horticultural Society.') 



BY A NOB.TH BRITON. 



All plants are naturally subject, in a certain extent, to the vicissi- 

 tudes of winter, spring, and summer. It follows, therefore, that, in 

 a state of cultivation, something analogous should be followed by the 

 cultivator in imitation of those changes. To keep tropical plants at 

 a high temperature during winter, when there is little sunshiue, is to 

 excite their growing principle at a period when they should rather be 

 at rest ; and where such a practice is followed, the plants become 

 drawn up, weak and leafless, in consequence of the perpetual, or, we 

 may say, in this instance, unnatural, stimulus to excitement which 

 the application of heat produces. It appears, from practice and 

 observation, that the temperature of the plant stove should be kept 

 as near to from 60 to 65 degrees as possible during the dark days of 

 winter, for all that is then required is to prevent the plants from 

 being checked or chilled by cold during that season ; so that, as 

 spring naturally comes on, a further, but gradual, stimulus may be 

 given them by additional heat, and most particularly during the day. 

 Water must not be entirely withheld, particularly from some 

 species ; but a much less quantity of it is necessary than when the 

 plants are in a growing state, and able to decompose a greater portion 

 of that element. Some species require none for several weeks to- 

 gether; and such may be ascertained by their habits of growth, and 

 are of the herbaceous and bulbous sorts. As these naturally ripen 

 their foliage in autumn, (or at whatever other season,) and appear to 

 die down to the ground, they should be observed, and collected t 'as 

 near together as circumstances will admit of, and a suspension of 

 watering should then gradually take place, and be continued in till 

 they begin to show signs of vegetation in spring, when they should 

 be again supplied as usual. Some species, which require very little 

 water during winter, do not lose their leaves, nor die down to the 

 surface of the pots ; but it is only observation on the part of the 

 cultivator that can direct him in these instances when to water, and 

 when to withhold it. It is (as we have repeatedly observed) one of 



