TEMPERATURE AND MOISTURE. 33 



enced what these varieties and conditions are ; but my 

 object is to impress upon young or inexperienced readers 

 what I have long believed to be an important truth that 

 the supplying the proper conditions of temperature to 

 plants under glass, according to their different natures 

 and conditions, has as much, or more, to do with their 

 welfare than any other cause ; and that often when ascrib- 

 ing the unhealthy state of a plant to uncongenial soil or 

 defective drainage, or the "damping off" of some favorite 

 cutting to the way it was cut or the sand it was put in, 

 the true and sole cause of failure was nothing more than 

 condemning them to an atmosphere uncongenial to their 

 nature. 



Thus far, we mainly allude to temperature. Serious 

 injury is often done to plants from a want of, or excess of, 

 moisture. The old gardener with whom my first essay in 

 gardening was made used to define the difference in dryness 

 in plants as " dry " and " killing dry ;" " dry " was the 

 proper condition that the plant should be in, when water 

 was applied, the surface indicating dryness by becoming 

 lighter, but no flagging or wilting ; but woe betide the 

 unfortunate that allowed a plant in charge to become in the 

 condition of " killing dry ;" this in his eye was an unpar- 

 donable offence. " Killing dry" was, to some extent, really 

 killing in such a collection as we grew, which consisted 

 largely of Cape Heaths, Epacris, and other hard-wooded 

 plants, which are easily killed outright by allowing their 

 tender, thread-like rootlets to become dry; unlike soft- 

 wooded plants, such as Geraniums, or Fuchsias, they have 

 less recuperative powers, so that a " dry" that would kill 

 a Heath would have only the effect to stagnate the growth 

 of a Geranium, and bring the tell-tale yellow leaves that 

 are certain, to follow whenever such plants have suffered for 

 a lack or excess of moisture. Although the effect of dry- 

 ing is, for the time being perhaps, less marked in a hard- 

 wooded plant than in a soft-wooded one, yet the ultimate 

 2* 



