INTRODUCTION. IX 



ferred ; some shift them before they are set out of doors, some when they first set them out, others in 

 the autumn, which last time is of all the most improper. The pots should be always well drained with 

 sherds. If any of the plants have grown too straggling or tall, they should be cut back early in the 

 spring, that they may become good bushy plants before autumn. In summer, while the plants are out of 

 doors, if the weather is dry, they should be regularly and plentifully supplied with water, as late as possible 

 every afternoon. The mould intended for shifting or potting off plants should never be sifted, but 

 merely chopped up finely with a spade with the turf, for the turf and its roots are the best parts of the 

 mould, keeping the soil light and loose, and allowing the roots of the plants to spread and the water to 

 penetrate ; sifted mould, on the other hand, hardens and becomes sour. The cuttings of greenhouse 

 plants require to be put in at various seasons. From Christmas to the end of May is generally the best 

 time, but this will depend entirely upon the state of the shoots required to make cuttings ; for instance, 

 if the cuttings require to be ripened, they should be planted early in the spring ; but if they require 

 to be young, the time to plant them is when the shoots have grown a sufficient length for that purpose. 

 In potting off plants raised from cuttings, care is requisite not to injure the young fibres ; at first they 

 should be placed in very small pots, and afterwards shifted into pots of increasing size, as they grow, but 

 care should be taken not to plant them in too large pots, or to give them too much water. The seeds of 

 greenhouse plants should always be sown in pots as early as possible in the spring, placed in a little bottom 

 heat ; and the seedlings should be potted off separately when they have grown about an inch in height. 



3. Frame plants require exactly the same treatment as greenhouse plants, excepting that they do not 

 require any fire during winter, but only to be protected by mats from the frost. 



4. Stove plants are such as are natives within the tropics, therefore require a great degree of heat 

 and plenty of moisture at certain seasons of the year. They are usually of easy culture. The house in 

 which they are grown should be very closely glazed, in ordei; that the temperature may be very regular 

 during winter, or in cold windy nights. The temperature of the house should never be allowed to fall 

 below 60 of Fahrenheit in winter ; and in fine days, when it rises to 70", a little air may be given ; but 

 early in the afternoon it should be shut up close. Formerly the pots of stove plants were plunged in 

 tan, but this method is now entirely exploded, and a bed of gravel or sand is substituted, which is 

 greatly preferable for the health of the plants, as well as the diminution of expense. The houses may 

 be either heated with hot water, or with steam conveyed through pipes, or by means of fires ; but we 

 consider the two first methods preferable, as giving a more congenial heat. As stove plants are apt to 

 be infested by insects, such as the green fly, the red spider, and the mealy bug, the first may be de- 

 stroyed by the smoke of tobacco, the second by sulphur-vivum, mixed up in a pail of quick lime, with 

 which the flues should be washed all over, which is a certain means of exterminating them. The mealy 

 bug and scaly bug are only to be got rid of by removing them with a small hair brush ; for this 

 purpose the plants should be examined as often as possible. The plants should be washed from an 

 engine in fine weather, and the house kept warm, by which means they will be always kept clean and 

 healthy. Air should be admitted as early as possible in the morning, in warm weather, taking care to shut 

 up early in the afternoon, that the house may be kept to a proper temperature during the night. The time 

 for re-potting them is early in the spring, and the pots always require to be drained with sherds, which keeps 

 the mould loose and free from being soddened with water. The time at which cuttings should be planted is 



VOL. i. a 



