BRIEF REMARKS. 21 3 



winter I give none. "When quite dry the leaves will become shrivelled, 

 but when I begin to start the plants into growth early in the spring 

 they become quite plump in a few days. Sometimes these plants will 

 show flower late in the autumn; when this is the case I withhold 

 water till the spring, as when they flower late in the season the flowers 

 will be green instead of scarlet, being a strong proof of the plant 

 requiring a bright sunny situation in which both to grow and flower it. 



Wheifa young plant flowers for the first time, it generally produces 

 only one head of flowers, which, if the plant be well grown, will be 

 large and fine ; when done flowering, young shoots will begin to make 

 their appearance in the axils of the leaves on different parts of the 

 stem. The plant should now have a good shift, and these young 

 shoots encouraged to grow as speedily and as strongly as possible ; and 

 for this purpose placing the plants for a few weeks on a shelf in the 

 hothouse will be of the greatest benefit, taking care, however, not to 

 let them remain there too long, or they will begin to draw up weakly 

 with too strong a heat, which they will not bear for a length of time. 



In the second time of flowering the heads of the flowers will not be 

 so large as in the first instance, when there was only one head ; but 

 still, if well managed, the plant will present a splendid appearance, 

 with seven or eight heads all in flower at one time. After flowering 

 three or four times, and having received repeated shifting, the plant 

 becomes naked and unsightly. In this case I reduce the ball suf- 

 ficientlv small for a 6-inch po't, prune the plant, leaving a few of the 

 most healthy and strongest shoots, place it in gentle heat for a few 

 weeks when it soon recovers and makes a handsome plant ; at the 

 same time it is a good plan to keep putting in a few cuttings every 

 season, to keep up a succession of young flowering plants, and early in 

 the spring to plant as many of these strong young plants as would con- 

 veniently go into a 12 or 15-inch pot ; they should be picked as near 

 of a size as possible; place them in a pit close to the glass, and, if 

 manat^ed nicely, they will produce an astonishing mass of bloom. 



BRIEF REMARKS. 



' A Chapter of Flowers. — Flowers of all created things are the 

 most innocent and simple, and most superbly complex ; playthings for 

 childhood, ornaments of the grave, and the companion of the cold 

 corpse in the coffin. Flowers, beloved by the wandering idiot, and 

 studied by the deep thinking man of science ! Flowers that of perish- 

 ing things are most perishing, yet of all earthly things, are the most 

 heavenly. Flowers, that unceasingly expand to heaven their grateful 

 and to man their cheerful looks— partners of human joy, smoothers of 

 human sorrow ; fit emblems of the victor's triumphs, of the young 

 bride's blushes ; welcome to crowded halls, and graceful upon solitary 

 graves ! . . . . Flowers are in the volume of nature, what the ex- 

 pression, "God is love," is in the volume of revelation 



AVhat a dreary desolate place would be a world without a flower ! 

 It would be a face without asmile— a feast without a welcome .... 



