294 On the Cultivation and Treatment 



water; they must be particularly attended to at this time, so that 

 they may not receive any check, from want of water, air, or 

 heat, as it would injure them materially; they must also be fre- 

 quently turned to the light, and their dead leaves taken off, as 

 they are very impatient of foul stagnated air, which, crowding 

 them together, and leaving on the decayed leaves, is sure to pro- 

 duce. This lot of plants will be in bloom. about the 20th or 25th 

 of February. 



About the 1st of February another lot should be potted off, 

 -and the same course pursued as with the first; and thus, by pot- 

 ting a lot every two weeks till the middle of April, and bringing 

 them from the green-house to the forcing house, a constant suc- 

 cession of bloom may be kept up till July. In the middle of 

 April those left in the green-house should be repotted : there 

 will be no need of putting these into the forcing house, as the 

 increased temperature of the house will be sufficient for them. 

 It is not necessary that the plants should be as near the glass 

 when in bloom as when in a growing state; if the construction of 

 the house admits of it, a shelf on the back wall, or hanging 

 within two feet of the rafters, is a good situation for them; they 

 can be removed from thence, and placed upon the lower staging, 

 when in bloom, and their place upon the shelf supplied by an- 

 other lot. After the plants have done blooming the flower stems 

 should be cut out, and they should have a top-dressing of the 

 compost, and be placed in the open air, where no particular at- 

 tention to them will be requisite: those first brought into the 

 forcing house will furnish cuttings which can be put in, in June, 

 but the greater part will not be fit for that purpose till August. 

 I do not think it advisable to keep the plants over to another 

 season, as they will take up a great deal of room in the forcing 

 house; should this not be an object, some of the best sorts can 

 be preserved: they should have a second top dressing in Sep- 

 tember, and, when housed, receive the same treatment as in the 

 previous season, only shifting them into larger sized pots; gene- 

 rally, however, cuttings put in in June will be strong enough to 

 put into No. 2 pots when put into the forcing house. Cuttings 

 of the roots furnish very fine plants, generally being more bushy 

 than those made from the top: in making them, pieces of the 

 root about as thick as a straw, and about two inches long, are 

 made use of; these are to be put, two or three into a No. h pot, 

 with about a quarter of an inch of the thickest end above the 

 surface of the mould; they are to receive the same treatment as 

 other cuttings, over which they have an advantage, as they can 

 be put in earlier in the season, and thus produce larger plants, 

 where that is desired. The great advantage of the above treat- 

 ment is, that a person having but a small place, can have a col- 

 lection of fifty or a hundred varieties, and duplicate plants of 



