148 PEACTICAL GAKDENING. 



whicli can "be made to shade them from the sun as well as it 

 protects them from the wind and sKght frosts. 



The different modes of protecting potted plants are, there- 

 fore, first, to plunge their pots to the rim, and let them take 

 their chance of the open weather — this will do for most 

 things that are nearly hardy, and that would be safe, planted 

 in the open ground. Secondly, to do this, and provide hoops 

 and mats to cover them in hard weather, and shade them 

 from the burning sun, which is often felt in the early spring 

 months — this will do for plants yet more tender. Thirdly, 

 to place them in cold pits, built up with turves, to form the 

 walls, and glass lights to cover them — this, with proper 

 attention, will do for many greenhouse plants. Fourthly, to 

 place them in regularly-built brick pits, but with no provision 

 for artificial heat in the event of hard weather, it being quite 

 sufficient to shut out the frost, and shade them from the hot 

 sun. These pits are of various constructions, according to 

 the height of the plants to be protected : camellias, azalea 

 indica, epacris, heaths, and many other plants, are sheltered 

 there by thousands, and except covering with mats, or cloths, 

 have none but the natural warmth, or, rather, the warmth of 

 the earth, which is kept in by means of proper covering, 

 increased in thickness during the hardest weather ; and no 

 method that has been devised answers better. Fifthly, we 

 come to pits warmed by artificial means when necessary, and 

 greenhouses, which are only on a large scale ; but even these 

 should be rarely heated for ordinary greenhouse plants, for 

 the plants thrive much better without fire than with it. The 

 less excitement a plant has in winter time, the better. Most 

 exotics are used to more uniform climates than our own; they 

 may have even a longer winter than ours to contend with, 

 but when the fine weather comes, they have not the alterna- 

 tions of heat and cold peculiar to our climate, and, therefore, 

 it is these changes that we have to guard against. But, 

 although we have mentioned some of the most common 

 means of protecting potted plants, we must not omit to notice 

 a more rude way of treating them resorted to by those who 

 have not the means to provide a better method. "We have 

 seen a hole dug in the highest part of the ground, two feet 

 deep, three feet wide, and as long as the plants would occupy, 

 the plants set in the bottom of this hole, and hurdles placed 

 over them, upon which some sort of covering was put at 



