36 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



same temperature as the atmosphere in which the plants 

 are growing. 



To both these dogmas, I beg to respectfully enter my 

 protest. Such dogmas are handed down from one to 

 another, without one in a hundred of those who hold 

 them having either the opportunity or inclination to test 

 their truth by experiment. My green-houses, at Jersey 

 City, for a dozen years, were entirely watered from a deep 

 well of hard water, \finter and summer, which might 

 average in temperature 40 ; most of my green-houses, 

 now at Bergen City, are watered from cisterns inside the 

 green-houses, from rain-water caught by the roof; yet we 

 have never been able to see that our plants have been any 

 better grown or healthier in one place than in the other. 

 If any one will take the trouble to reason for a minute, 

 he will understand why there is no necessity for this 

 equality of temperature between the water and the soil. 

 If we plunge a thermometer into the soil of a plant in the 

 hot-house, it may indicate say 80 ; if we pour a pint of 

 water at 40 into the soil, the temperature will not be 40, 

 but about the mean between 40 and 80, say 60. Now 

 if the soil remained for any length of time at 60, it might 

 be claimed to be injurious ; but it does not. In 10 minutes 

 it will become of the same temperature as before it was 

 watered, or nearly so, by the absorption of heat from the 

 atmosphere of the house. It is the duration of extremes 

 of temperature that does the mischief; place a plant of 

 Coleus in a temperature of 33 for 24 hours, and it will be 

 almost certain to die, while it would remain as many 

 minutes without injury. Let a dash of sun raise the tem- 

 perature of your hot-bed to 100, or over, for 10 minutes, 

 and it will not seriously injure the contents, but an hour 

 of this temperature might destroy the whole. 



We pour ice-water into our stomachs at a temperature 

 of less than 40, with impunity, because but a few minutes 

 suffices to bring it to the temperature it meets with there ; 



