138 HOT-HOUSE. [Jan. 



posing it is anthracite coal, in twenty minutes, with a good 

 drawing furnace, the heat will operate in the house. If a 

 coal fire, kindled about four o'clock, it will require an addi- 

 tion about six, and then may be made up again about nine 

 or ten, which will suffice until morning. The quantity 

 must be regulated by the weather. If the fuel is wood, it 

 must be attended to three or four times during the even- 

 ing; and, when the mornings are intensely cold, a fire 

 may be. requisite. When there are bad drawing furnaces, 

 the fires must be made much earlier, perhaps by two or 

 three o'clock, which will be easily observed by the time 

 the fire takes effect upon the air of the house. The tem- 

 perature ought never to be under fifty degrees of Fahren- 

 heit. 



OF WATERING THE PLANTS. 



To do this judiciously, is so necessary to vegetation, and 

 so requisite to understand, and yet the knowledge so diffi- 

 cult to convey to others, (being entirely acquired by prac- 

 tice,) that if the power were in man to impart to his fel- 

 low-men, he would possess the power of perfecting a 

 gardener by diction. However, the hints on this important 

 point of floriculture will be as clear and expressive as can 

 at present be elicited. All plants in this work that are 

 aquatic shall be specified as such ; and those that are arid 

 shall be duly mentioned. All others will come in the 

 medium. 



All the plants must be looked over every day, and those 

 watered that appear to be getting dry on the top. It must 

 be strictly observed not to give water to any but such as 

 strictly require it, and let it be given moderately at this 

 season. There is not so much liability to err, at present, 

 in giving too little, as in administering too much. Vege- 

 tation among the stove or hot-house plants will soon begin 

 to show, and the soil will become sour if it is impregnated 

 with stagnant moisture. Small plants should always be 

 watered with a pot having what is termed a rose upon it. 

 The surface of the rose, that is, where it is perforated with 

 small apertures, ought to be level, or a little concave, which 

 would convey the water more to a centre, and make neater 



