72 ON WOOD LICE. 



IN THE GREENHOUSE, &c. 



Continue to admit all air possible. Re-pot the various inmates as 

 required from time to time, and examine to see that the drainage is 

 free. Supply Cmerarias with manure water occasionally. Save tliera 

 from green fly ; smoke or tobacco water must be applied at the first 

 attack by the pest. Pot off seedlings, &c., for successive bloom. If 

 any of the soil looks black and wet, and the pot feels heavy, there is 

 something wrong. There is a soil which is good for almost every kind 

 of greenhouse plant — loam, with the turf rotted in it, decayed cow- 

 dung, leaf-mould, peat-earth, chopped small or rubbed through a very 

 coarse sieve, and road-sand, equal quantities of each ; it will do for 

 everything ; but if we had Heaths to grow, we shoul,d treble the quan- 

 tity of peat-earth, and not alter the others, so that it would be one of 

 each of the others and three of peat-earth, instead of one all round. 

 In moving a plant from one pot to another, take care that the plant be 

 not sunk in the least more in the new pot than it was in the old one, 

 and see that the compost, well mixed up, is made to go down very 

 nicely all round the old ball of earth. Immediately stop the shoots of 

 Pelargoniums which are to bloom from June, in order to induce new 

 lateral ones. Let Pelargoniums have plenty of air, but close up early 

 in the afternoon. Syringe overhead twice a-week after shutting up. 

 In watering give enough to moisten the entire soil. 



Cupheas, Calceolarias, Verbenas, Petunias, and other young stock, 

 intended either for decorating the flower-garden or to bloom in pots, 

 must, as growth advances, have the shoots stopped, which will cause 

 them to be bushy. Fuchsias require similar attention, forming cuttings 

 of the young shoots. 



Camellias exhausted with flowering should now receive a little extra 

 attention. Our practice is to remove them to a cooler situation for 

 three weeks, on the principle of slow breaking, and to give the root a 

 chance of overtaking, in some degree, the expenditure which has taken 

 place in the system. Any pruning necessary is performed at this 

 juncture ; no plant can succeed better, after judicious pruning, than 

 the Camellia. 



See that Lilium speciosum, &c., are not saturated by watering. Let 

 the Azaleas be re-potted, if required, and they must be pushed on by 

 additional warmth ; an increase of pot-room contributes to vigour. 



ON WOOD LICE. 



BY A SUBSCRIBER. 



These pests in plant-houses, fratues, pits, &c., are readily destroyed 

 with a strong solution of salt and water. I poured it into the holes 

 and crevices where they harboured, repeating it three times a few days 

 between each ; and although I had hosts of them, the entire race was 

 exterminated in 1848 ; not one has been seen since. Care was taken 

 not to allow any of the solution to fall on the plants. 



