238 THE ELOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



moist, and prevent the appearance of red spider. Use seven- inch 

 pots for this shift, keeping rather close, and watering less freely for 

 a few days after potting, while the roots are laying hold of the fresh 

 soil, but use the syringe freely, sprinkling the plants overhead 

 morning and evening. When established after this shift, give a 

 liberal supply of water, and to do this will probably require more 

 than the ordinary daily application, but this will greatly depend 

 upon the state of the weather, etc., and manure water may be given 

 frequently with advantage, particularly when the pots are rather 

 full of roots. Never allow the plants to sutler through want of pot 

 room, at least until they are in their flowering-pots, but shift into 

 those as soon as it is requisite to afford space for the roots. 

 The pots for the final shift should not be less than ten-inch ones, 

 and, with liberal treatment, twelve-inch pots will not be too large. 

 Maintain a moist atmosphere by frequent syringing, etc., and keep 

 the plants close to the glass, affording them a thin screen for two or 

 three hours during the forenoons of very bright days, but this should 

 not be used except the days are very hot, and then only for a short 

 time. 



Give a liberal supply of manure water when the pots get full of 

 roots, and syringe frequently, so as to have the plants in vigorous 

 health, and perfectly clean when they commenced flowering. Any 

 airy, light, cool situation will suit them while they are in them, and 

 all the attention they will then require will be to remove the seed- 

 pods as they appear, leaving a few on the most esteemed varieties, 

 to afford a "supply of seeds, keeping them clear of decaying flowers, 

 and giving a liberal supply of clear, weak, manure water. Plants 

 for late flowering should be grown in a pit or frame, where they can 

 be treated almost as if in the open air, merely using the lights to 

 protect them from heavy storms, or to slightly screen them when 

 newly potted. Persons, however, who cannot afford space in a 

 frame or pot, will find the following treatment to produce first-rate 

 specimens. Supposing the plants to be well-established in five- 

 inch pots about the end of May, prepare a gentle hot-bed large 

 enough to place them upon after shifting into the flowering-pots. 

 Remove them to this, and inure them to the open air by sheltering 

 them from the direct rays of the sun, etc., for a time, then shift 

 into flowering-pots, and replace them in the open-air hot-bed, and 

 if this is covered with old tan, sifted coal-ashes, or any material that 

 will permit the pots to be plunged about half their depth, or more, 

 according to the temperature of the bed, it will be of great service 

 in preventing rapid evaporation, and affording a regular tempera- 

 ture to the roots. If the pots are plunged, the roots will be apt to 

 strike down into the bed, but this must be prevented by frequently 

 turning the pots round ; so circumstanced, the plants will be found 

 to grow very rapidly, producing short-jointed, robust shoots, and 

 they will grow to any reasonable size in a comparatively short 

 time. 



The bed should, of course, be put up in a sheltered corner, where 

 they will not be liable to be blown about by wind, and it may be 

 advisable to afford them the support of a stake. 



