FLOWER-GARDENING. 117 



not prudent to keep plants in an extremely vigorous state, until 

 the season arrives when the external air is soft and salubrious *, 

 they can then have a due proportion of heat, air, and moisture 

 at the same time. 



A Fahrenheit thermometer is indispensable in a green-house, 

 or room where plants are kept, and the temperature should be 

 always kept up as nearly as possible to forty degrees, in the 

 absence of the sun. If the gardener retire to rest in this varia- 

 ble climate, leaving the mercury much below forty, he may 

 expect to find his plants frozen in the morning. 



A good brick flue is better calculated for heating a small 

 green-house than any other contrivance ; because, after a suffi- 

 cient fire has been made to heat the bricks thoroughly, they 

 will retain the heat through a winter night, whereas an iron 

 stove with its metal pipes will cool as the fire gets low, and 

 expose the plants to cold towards morning, which is the time 

 they most need protection. The heat from iron is, moreover, 

 too dry and parching, while an evaporation or salubrious steam 

 may be raised from bricks, by sprinkling the flue occasionally, 

 which would operate on plants similar to healthful dew-drops. 



In cold weather sitting-rooms or parlors are generally heated 

 in the daytime to full twenty -degrees higher than what is 

 necessary for the preservation of plants ; consequently, as the 

 heat decreases in the night season, plants often get injured, 

 unless a fire is kept up. Air must be admitted to plants 

 kept in this way, at all opportunities ; and more water will be 

 necessary for such plants, than those kept in a green-house 

 would require. 



Green-house plants will need daily care in hot and dry 

 weather. They should be watered every evening. Such Gera- 

 niums as may have grown large and unwieldy, should be pruned, 

 in order that their size and appearance may be improved. 



Garden Roses, having done flowering for the season, should 

 also be pruned. Cut out all old exhausted wood, and where it 

 is too thick and crowded, shorten such shoots as have flowered, 

 to a fresh strong eye, or bud, accompanied with a healthy leaf. 



