120 THE AMATEUE's GREENHOUSE 



over a propagating tank, or a frame over a dung-bed. They 

 require to be kept moderately moist, and will bear to be closely 

 confined until they form roots. Never having seen a case of 

 damping-off, though we have struck thousands of cuttings, and 

 in various ways, it does not seem needful to warn the cultivator 

 on this head. However, let air be given moderately after the 

 lapse of a week, and thenceforward increase the supply, so that 

 by the time the pots are filled with roots, the plants will be 

 hard and thrifty. When propagated on a large scale they may 

 be dibbled into wet sand, placed over a tank or dung-bed, but 

 we prefer to pot them singly at first, as it is a decided gain in 

 the end. "When the thumbpots are full of roots shift to 60- 

 sized pots, using a compost of peat, leaf, and loam from rotted 

 turfs, equal parts of each, keep them in the greenhouse, or 

 warm pit, water frequently overhead, and at the root ; give 

 plenty of air, and keep the plants near the glass. "When these 

 pots are full of roots, shift into 6-inch pots, the compost to be 

 strong turfy loam, full of fibre ; turfy peat, rotten manure and 

 leaf-mould, equal parts, no sand. For the drainage of these 

 pots we use only one large oyster shell, placed over the hole in 

 the pot, hollow side downwards. The plants are shifted into 

 these pots without breaking the balls of earth formed in the 

 60's, and are at once placed on a bed of coal ashes, or a hard 

 pavement in a shady place out of doors, or plunged to the rim 

 in a bed of cocoa-nut refuse. They have abundance of water, 

 and before the end of October they have attained to an immense 

 size, and have ripened plenty of hard flowering wood for the 

 next season. 



The plants are housed at the end of October. A cold pit 

 suffices for their protection, and they have a little water 

 occasionally, and are kept clean as they lose their leaves. In 

 case of severe weather a little care must be taken to prevent 

 them being severely frosted. 



From this point the cultivator may proceed either to force a 

 few at a time, or allow them to bloom naturally as the season 

 advances. The first thing to do is to cut them back to about 

 six eyes from the bottom of each well-placed ripe shoot, 

 removing any weak inside shoots that might crowd the head 

 without improving the plant. Next give them a shift to pots 

 seven and a half inches in diameter, with the same soil as the 

 last, and with a mulch of rotten manure an inch thick on the 

 top. Ordinary greenhouse temperature will set them going 



