AND CONSERVATORT. 75 



will form a nice little plant by the end of the summer. Those 

 who have not convenience for forcing may have a fine display 

 early in the season by simply keeping them in the greenhouse 

 from the time they are potted until they come into bloom. Of 

 course they should be placed in an out-of-the-way corner until 

 the young growth begins to push, and then they should be 

 placed in a position near the glass. 



Balsam. — The camellia-floivered varieties make superb con- 

 servatory plants if well grown. The seed should be sown in 

 March, in a gentle bottom-heat, and the plants should be 

 potted off singly as soon as large enough to handle, and as fast 

 as they fill their pots with roots should be shifted on to larger 

 and larger pots, until they are required to flower, and then 

 there must be no more shifting. Very nice plants may be 

 grown in five-inch to nine-inch pots, and they are better grown 

 singly than several in a pot. The compost should be rich ; 

 the plants should never have the least check through cold or 

 want of water, and if they show flower-buds while they are yet 

 too small to be allowed to flower, pinch them out, and keep 

 the plants growing by shifting on. 



Begonias belong much more to the stove than the green- 

 house, but they are such universal favorites that we dare not ex- 

 clude them from this work. With the aid of a hotbed a number 

 of fine begonias may be grown in a greenhouse, but if there is 

 no hotbed, the selection must be restricted. The ornamental 

 leaved kinds, such as Rex, may be kept under the stage all 

 winter in their pots laid on their sides, and if quite dry, will 

 be ready to start into a free growth with tbe aid of a moist 

 heat in spring. The sorts that flower in winter, however, are 

 of no use for the greenhouse, as they must have, in the dead 

 season of the year, the comfort of the stove. However, as a 

 few good sorts are nearly hardy, and the tender ones are ac- 

 commodating, we can fairly include begonias amongst green- 

 house plants. To make plants is a very easy matter. The 

 stemless kinds are propagated by means of the full-grown 

 leaves, in the same way as the ornamental-leaved varieties are. 

 But all that have a shrubby habit are readily raised from cut- 

 tings of the young wood in the spring. Tbe cuttings should 

 be taken off" about a couple of inches in length from the fresh 

 healthy tips of the young shoots, and inserted firmly in sand 



