180 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



shoot, and that trained upwards by a temporary support ; but 

 it is far better to save the original leaders. The next year's 

 growth would be better than the first. It would be necessary 

 to thin out many of the shoots, because they would be too 

 thick otherwise, and confused^ but there would be as much 

 difference between these plants and those usually shown as 

 between two several families. They would be one mass of 

 bloom from top to bottom, and models of what fuchsias should 

 be ; but they must be groTVTi without heat the second year as 

 well as the first, and as a general rule, without any exception, 

 fuchsias should have no artificial heat ; they would grow as 

 well out of doors as in doors, if not better than under any 

 covering, but they would not come in for May and June 

 shows, and therefore, the giving of prizes at these shows for 

 fuchsias is bad in principle. 



Stove Plants. — Stove plants generally are of easy culture, 

 and many of them would be better ^vithout any other attention 

 than providing them with heat, moisture, and hght. There is 

 very little merit in bringing things out of season, unless some 

 object is to be gained, yet we constantly see injudicious prizes 

 awarded for flowers out of season, much to the detriment of 

 the plants in general appearance. One precaution should 

 always be taken with forced flowers and stove plants wherever 

 they are to be exhibited, and that is to remove them, a day or 

 two before they are shown, from the forcing-house or stove to 

 the greenhouse, to season them gradually to the cooler element, 

 before they encounter the draughts in a tent or the changes 

 of removal. It is no uncommon circumstance to see stove 

 plants actually drooping from the sudden changes to which 

 they have been subjected, when a day or two in a cooler 

 house would have prevented it. Avoid, as much as possible, 

 on all occasions, a confused growth ; it is as bad as a scanty 

 one. 



There is not a handsomer stove plant scarcely the year round 

 than the Euphorbia splendens, well grown, but the majority of 

 those we have seen have been a confused and ugly mass of 

 branches crossing each other in every possible direction, pre- 

 senting flowers half their proper size, and branches scarcely 

 able to support themselves ; and yet, under proper culture, 

 nothing can be more robust. JS'othing more is required in the 

 culture of this plant than to thin out and regulate the number 

 of branches, shortening them when growing, but when they 



