XVI INTEODUCTIOZST. 



the rim of the pot is too scanty, the water given will only 

 wet 2 or 3 inches below the surface, the remainder will be 

 as dry as the deserts of Arabia, and the roots miserably 

 perish. The only sure way to find this out is to turn out 

 the ball an hour or two after watering it, and it will soon be 

 seen whether the water has penetrated to the bottom. The 

 ball may also be so hard that the water runs down the sides 

 of the pot without entering it. In such a case we thrust 

 a sharp-pointed stick or iron rod into the ball, making 

 numerous holes to allow the water to penetrate to the centre. 

 In very severe cases, we have sometimes recovered a plant 

 dying for want of water in the centre of the ball, by placing 

 it in water long enough to soak it thoroughly; but such 

 extreme cases will seldom, if ever, occur, if due attention is 

 paid at the time of potting to leave space enough below the 

 rim of the pot to hold water. The cultivator may soon, by 

 experience, learn when the ball of earth in the pots is in a 

 proper condition of moisture by sound that is, by striking 

 the side of the pot with his knuckles ; if the sound be dull 

 or heavy the soil is moist, but if the sound be clear and 

 sharp the plant needs water. 



PROPAGATION. 



By Spores. In our moist stoves, and more especially the 

 Orchid-house, the more common kinds spring up from spores 

 so much and so freely as to become troublesome. We 

 remember a wall on the north side of an Orchid-house, 

 at Pine Apple Place, which, partly from its situation, and 

 partly from being syringed every day to moisten blocks of 

 wood on which Orchids grew, was kept constantly moist. 

 On this wall the common Pteris scrrulata grew so thickly 

 from spores as completely to cover it ; so much so, that it 



