CULTIVATION IX POTS. OO 



injured, yet this is no criterion for those in pot, which, when once frozen, 

 will generally be afterwards found to have perished. 



"When they are thoroughly ripened and the tops have died down, the tubers 

 should be carefully shaken out of the soil in which they grew, taking care in 

 rubbing off the surrounding soil not to break the skin of the tuber, if 

 possible, which at this stage is decidedly tender. Ordinary mixed varieties 

 may safely be put, to the number of several hundreds, or even some thousands 

 together, into a box with a little half-dry coco-nut fibre among them ; choice 

 named or marked tubers should be placed in separate pots for each variety, 

 with a handful of fibre round them, and the label stuck inside the rim. 

 Some cultivators winter their ^bulbs in the pots in which they grew, laying 

 them on their sides under a greenhouse stage, or elsewhere ; but they are 

 better shaken out, as they can thus be occasionally looked over with ease, 

 removing any that are decayed, and at the same time moistening them 

 slightly, if inclined to become shrivelled, or spreading them out for a time 

 to dry if too much moisture exists. In any and every case, the tubers 

 should be placed where frost is regularly and thoroughly excluded, a tem- 

 perature ranging from 40 to 50 P being most suitable during the resting 

 period. 



Dropping of the buds or blossoms is sometimes very troublesome in the 

 culture of these Begonias. This fault is more apt to occur among the 

 yellow-flowered varieties and some whites than in the red-coloured kinds, 

 though some pink and rose-coloured plants (and these often of the finest 

 form and hue) are also subject to it. In some cases this is caused by an 

 unhealthy state of the plants or a want of activity at the root, which may 

 result from careless or mistaken treatment. Sudden chills or changes of 

 atmosphere will also often produce this effect, but in many cases the fault 

 is constitutional and cannot be remedied. Such plants should be thrown 

 away, as they are not worth growing, and no seed should ever be saved from 

 them. 



"We have found the yellow-flowering Begonias on the whole less vigorous 

 than the others, excepting perhaps a few of the white varieties. They there- 

 fore need rather more careful cultivation to do them justice, and they seem to 

 succeed better in a rather higher temperature than the rest, and where any 

 draught or current of air is absent. 



