HOW TO GROW SPECIMEN PLANTS. 297 



miniature at an early stage, and need only shorten 

 such branches as are getting on too fast for the re- 

 mainder. All weakly shoots should be cut away close 

 home, for they only weaken the rest and confuse the 

 order; branches should not cross each other, nor should 

 the plant get confused by reason of the number of 

 branches allowed to remain. The habit of the variety 

 under cultivation should be studied, for there are many 

 kinds grown which are worthless; a bad habit is seldom 

 compensated for by a good flower, because the fuchsia 

 depends for its value a great deal on habit. 



Prince Albert, Gem of the Season, Duchess of Lan- 

 caster, Prince of Wales, Souvenir de Chiswick, Madame 

 Sontag, and Venus de Merlici, are all of fine habit. Few 

 can equal them in this respect, while all may lay claim 

 to most of the requisites of a good flower. Set them in 

 pots, in moderate soil (not rich) ; and after this give them 

 only water when they want it, and all the air and light 

 you can. They will scarcely require a shoot to be 

 lopped ; so fine is their habit, that unless accident 

 blighted the leader, they would be compact, and at 

 their season full of bloom. At the end. of the year, 

 when, as it were, they had done their work, the} would 



