FOURTH WEEK IN MARCH 



escaped this danger, it is necessary to take special care of 

 forced plants so early in the season, for the dry air of a 

 sitting-room (sometimes laden, too, with the fumes of gas) is 

 very trying to plants, and this is often followed during the 

 early morning hours by a cutting draught of freezingly cold 

 air when windows and doors are necessarily opened to air 

 the rooms. 



Most modern houses, however, contain some safe corner 

 for delicate plants at night. It may be a bathroom, with 

 hot water laid on, which can be turned on for a few 

 minutes to warm and soften the air before closing it, or 

 some small glass erection hardly to be called a greenhouse 

 which yet can be warmed with one of the excellent hot- 

 water stoves which are now obtainable. Failing either of 

 these places, it is possible to save our plants by arranging a 

 common deal box in the kitchen (or any warm room), con- 

 taining at the bottom a layer of moist, fine coal ashes, and 

 being covered with a few pieces of glass. Into this modest 

 night refuge the pots should go before gas is lit in the even- 

 ing ; the damp air contained in the box (which should be of 

 a size to suit the plants to be sheltered) will refresh them, 

 and they should be allowed to stay in it until the rooms are 

 aired and warmed, when a few hours in a sitting-room will 

 do them no harm. 



Heaths and azaleas are specially in need of some such a 

 refuge, for they are always impatient of a dry, heated atmo- 

 sphere, and gas is rapidly fatal to them, their buds shrivelling 

 iway instead of opening, and their leaves dropping off when 

 exposed to its effects ; yet these beautiful flowers sell in large 

 numbers in our cities, for they are so fresh and lovely that 

 it is difficult to withstand the temptation to possess them. 

 They need a moist atmosphere, and may be grown in a cool 

 greenhouse if this is understood. In the case of azaleas syring- 

 ing is constantly necessary to prevent the attacks of their 

 special enemy, thrip ; and this should be discontinued only 

 when the buds begin to expand, until the blossoms are faded. 

 Directly this takes place every bloom should be removed, for 

 seed-bearing exhausts the plant greatly, and it is necessary to 



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