ARTIFICIAL SOILS. 1 1? 



CHAPTER VIII. 



ARTIFICIAL SOILS. 



xxm. POTTING SOILS. In our talks about the 

 soil, we have so far considered the natural loam, or 

 earth as we find it in our gardens. Now, we know 

 that thousands of plants live in pots through the whole 

 or a part of their lives, and these plants must have a 

 soil of their own. We have already studied artificial 

 climates in cold-frames, hotbeds, greenhouses, grape- 

 ries, and plant-houses of all kinds ; and we learn that 

 there are also artificial soils for plants growing in these 

 artificial climates. The florist and the greenhouse- 

 man call these soils "potting soils" because they are 

 used in flower-pots. Some of the men who have 

 written books about plants in greenhouses have said 

 that nearly every kind of plant, particularly flowering 

 plants, must have a particular kind of soil. The books 

 written about plants twenty-five years ago, and nearly 

 every book on the subject in England at this day, con- 

 tain minute and special directions for making soils for 

 different plants. They say, for geraniums you must 

 have one kind of soil, for mignonnette another, for the 

 Chinese primrose still another, and so on ; whereas, 

 for nearly all plants it does not make the slightest 



