General Notices. 549 



and its ready adaptation to every climate and soil, costing only some 2s or 

 3s per 1000, present irresistible claims on landed proprietors for extensive 

 planting. — {To be continued.) 



Autumnal Treatment of Greenhouse Plants. — The important process of 

 ripening the wood of these plants, is an indispensable one to their success- 

 ful cultivation, but is too little attended to by the majority of gardeners, 

 who, either through having their time too much occupied with the numer- 

 ous cares and duties which the revolving seasons bring with them in their 

 train, overlook it ; or, as is the case in many instances, through ignorance 

 of the utility of this necessary process, as on it depends in a great measure 

 the attainments of the objects for which they are cultivated, viz., a fine dis- 

 play of bloom. How frequently do we see greenhouse plants left in the 

 open air, during the autumn months, in wet seasons, exposed to drenching 

 rains, the consequence of which practice is the production of watery, ill- 

 ripened wood ; the fluids are not properly assimilated, the effect of which 

 in the tender species is, that the powers of vegetation become enfeebled, 

 and, frequently, a derangement of the vital functions takes place, resulting 

 in the extinction of vegetable life. All the plants placed under the above 

 unfavorable influence, require that a higher temperature should be main- 

 tained through the winter months, to resist the action of frosts, than if the 

 wood had been properly matured, and a very scanty supply of bloom in the 

 following season is the inevitable consequence of this system of manage- 

 ment. Those that are so fortunate as to occupy the greenhouse during the 

 autumn frequently sustain injury from injudicious watering ; a greater 

 quantity of water and soluble matter is absorbed by the roots, and drawn 

 into the system, than can properly be decomposed by the action of the solar 

 rays in this cloudy atmosphere of ours ; the system is filled to repletion 

 with crude unassimilated juices ; the tissue distended with watery matter, 

 and a scarcity, if not a total absence, of these peculiar secretions in the 

 plant, on which the formation of flower buds depends. 



On the other hand, in administering water only in proportion to the 

 amount of sun-light, keeping the plants as dry as can safely be done, in 

 preserving the vital functions unimpaired, by not encroaching beyond the 

 limits which their capacities fit them for enduring droughts, all the vital 

 actions are maintained in a healthy condition, and there is a concentration 

 of elaborated matter in the interior of them, tending to the formation of 

 flower buds, and, from the solidification of the tissue, they are better 

 adapted to withstand the action of frost during the winter. 



As our object is to obtain maturity in the wood, it is requisite that we 

 should judiciously apply the great agents of vegetation, — light and heat, — in 

 order to attain the above-mentioned physiological condition ; and, presuming 

 that all greenhouse plants are secured in their winter quarters before the ter- 

 mination of August, a temperature of 65° by day, Fahrenheit, max. temper- 

 ature, and 50^ by night, min. ought then to be maintained, allowing plenty 

 of air and fire heat to sustain the atmosphere at the required temperature, 

 excepting when the diurnal temperature can be maintained by abundance of 



