THE amateur's GEEENHOFSE AND CONSEETATOET. 179 



ascertain whether the lower portion is wetted or not. TVhen 

 once the lower part of the ball gets dust-dry, it is no easy task 

 to moisten it without dipping it into a vessel of water. When 

 any plant looks sickly, or evinces any flaccidity in the leaves, 

 and the soil is moist on the top, turn it out of the pot, and 

 probably the soil will be found dust- dry at a few inches from 

 the surface. The water should always run through the hole 

 in the bottom of the pot after its application, and you 

 should continue to fill up the space on the surface until it 

 does. Gruard against giving too much water at the roots, for 

 that is as injurious as an insufficient supply. 



Give liberal ventilation as soon as the stock has recovered 

 from the check received in repotting, and increase it as the 

 growth progresses. Although a moist and warm atmosphere 

 is essential to a healthy growth, it must not be kept too 

 close, or the shoots will be weak and long-jointed. When 

 the growth is completed, harden oif by opening the ventilators 

 night and day, and then place out of doors, in a shady and 

 rather sheltered position, until the middle or end of Sep- 

 tember. A light, airy greenhouse, with a temperature of 40' 

 or 45°, is all that is required during the winter months ; and 

 give the treatment already advised during the following spring 

 and summer. Good specimens can be, and are, grown without 

 a [taste of artificial heat, excepting what is necessary to keep 

 the frost out ; but to grow them like the magnificent speci- 

 mens staged at the metropolitan exhibitions, the preceding 

 directions must be strictly followed. 



When a nine-inch pot is reached, a shift once in two years 

 will be quite often enough, unless large specimens are required 

 at the earliest moment possible. Extra care will be requisite 

 in watering during the second year, to prevent them suffering 

 from drought, without them being kept too wet. Water with 

 rain-water at all times, except when they are making new growth 

 the second year after a shift, and then water with' weak liquid 

 manure, made by steeping sheep- or cow-manure in rain-water, 

 and allowing a sufficient time to settle before using. It 

 should be diluted with soft-water until paler than pale ale. 



With regard to training the specimens into shape the pyra- 

 midal form is perhaps the best. Those who intend to train 

 should take them in hand in a young state, for it is a difficult 

 affair to get an old plant into shape after being allowed to 

 grow wild for several years. 



