WATERING. 355 



cum in autumn; and much more strikingly so with the bulbs and 

 corms of Africa, which grow and flower only in the rainy season. 

 When plants are ripening their fruit, a diminished supply of water 

 increases the flavour, because at that period of growth the power of 

 decomposing it is diminished ; and if it is absorbed without being 

 decomposed, the effect will be to render the fruit watery without 

 flavour ; to crack it in some cases, to burst it in others, and in the case 

 of all keeping fruits to shorten the period for which they may be kept. 

 The same effects are produced by excess of water on bulbs, such as 

 those of the onion ; on roots and tubers (underground stems), such as 

 the turnip and the potato ; and even on leaves, such as those of the 

 lettuce and the cabbage, which in wet cloudy seasons are never so 

 highly flavoured as in seasons moderately moist, when succulency and 

 flavour are combined. 



Whether plants should be watered over the leaves or only over the 

 soil in which they grow depends on the state of the plant, the tempe 

 rature in which it is placed, the time of the day, the season of the year, 

 and other circumstances. Plants in a state of vigorous growth, in a 

 suitable temperature in spring or summer, and in the afternoon or 

 during cloudy weather, are better watered over the top, in order to 

 make certain of clearing their foliage ; but late in autumn or during 

 winter, when growth even in hothouses is or ought to be slow, owing 

 to the deficiency of light, plants should be watered only at their roots. 

 In general, all plants, whether in the open air or in plant structures, 

 ought to be watered overhead during spring, summer, and the early part 

 of autumn, unless they are in a dormant state, or in flower. On the 

 other hand, all plants in houses not undergoing forcing, and all plants 

 whatever in the open air during the latter part of autumn, during 

 winter, and in the early part of spring, should be watered only at the 

 root. Watering over the top should in general never be performed 

 during bright sunshine. Watering in summer should be performed in 

 the afternoon or evening, because at these periods less wUl be carried 

 off by evaporation than during the day; while during winter and 

 spring, watering ought to take place during the morning, that during 

 the day the surface of the ground may be warmed and dried by evapo- 

 ration and infiltration. 



One of the chief difficulties in watering plants in pots is to ascertain 

 that the water given has penetrated the whole of the soil in the pot. 

 The ball or mass of soil is frequently so filled with roots, or from its 

 nature and treatment is so compact, as not to be readily permeable by 

 water, which in that case, after merely moistening the surface, escapes 

 between the ball and the pot; while the operator, seeing the water 

 escaping from the bottom of the pot, concludes that the mass of soil 

 has been thoroughly penetrated and saturated by it. To ascertain 

 when the water has penetrated the mass of soil in a pot, it is common 

 to thrust into it, not far from the stem of the plant, a round pointed 

 stick, and to make sure of moistening the interior, to pour water into 

 the hole so formed. In loamy soils, or soils containing a large pro- 

 portion of sand, this mode will suffice for saturating the ball ; but in 



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