General Notices. 179 



cing house, when a partial watering is given them, increasing tlie quantity 

 according to the demands of the plant. The more the plants are forced, 

 the greater degree of hardening off they require, such as placing them in a 

 greenhouse, «Sic., for a day or two before introducing them into the drawing- 

 room ; otherwise, they are liable to droop the first day or so. 1 should re- 

 mark that I always keep the pots upon racks when out of doors or in the 

 pits ; this prevents the worms from getting into the pots. The soil that I 

 pot them. in is rich sand}"^ loam, with plenty of drainage at the bottom of the 

 pots. — {Garcl. Journ., 1848, p. 21.) 



Bleeding of Vines. — Th? vine is very apt to bleed greatly in tl e spring, 

 if the winter pruning be deferred to but a very short time after the com- 

 mencement of the year, if no severity of frost follows to deaden the pores 

 where cut through. It remains at present a somewhat disputed question 

 whether such bleeding be injurious to the vine, but the writer thinks it 

 ought to be avoided if possible ; and he does not hold it to be absolutely 

 necessary to accomplish the necessary pruning before the spring shoots 

 appear; for he has, in many cases, chosen, in order to avoid causing the 

 bleeding, to leave a vine quite unpruned till the buds began to push them- 

 selves into shoots ; and, as the vine has shown its disposition to extend 

 itself by each upper shoot, he has pinched off that shoot below its first 

 joint, taking care not to wound, in the slightest degree, the wood of the 

 past year, which would occasion bleeding. This he has done till he has 

 brought the vine exactly into that state, as to bearing buds, which he would 

 have done if he had accomplished the pruning at or before Christmas ; and 

 has got, by this dilatory process, ofttimes, a very good crop. The only dis- 

 advantage seems to be that many rather unsightly ends of the last year's 

 shoots, bared of their buds, must be left till about the third week of June, 

 when they may, as well as even far older wood, be cut away without occa- 

 sioning any or but the slightest bleeding. The bleeding in April and May, 

 in a vigorous vine, is such, that it seems to defy the utmost art of surgery 

 to stanch it. Some say that it may be stanched by burning the end of a 

 shoot, and then applying thereon hot sealing-wax ; but even this, the writer 

 has tried without success ; and certainly, the burning alone is not sufiicient, 

 as, where the burning ends, there the bleeding takes place. The bleeding 

 seems to be conducted according to the order following. In about the end 

 of March, the vine will bleed throughout a few of the middle hours of the 

 day, when the sun shines powerfully, and the wind is in a warm quarter; 

 but, during the night, the bleeding ceases. About the middle of April to 

 the middle of May, the bleeding takes place considerably and incessantly, 

 both by day and night. In the end of May and beginning of June, the 

 bleeding stops by day and takes place in the night. Towards the end of 

 June, when the shoots and bunches are contending against each other most 

 strenuously by day and night for each drop of sap, there seems to be no 

 longer room for any waste of sap by bleeding. Such is what the writer 

 believestobetheorder of the vine's bleeding. — (Gard. Journ., 1847, p. 311.) 

 Greenhouse Azaleas for Winter Decoration. — The production of flowers 

 for the drawing-room during the dark, dull, cheerless, and dreary months 



