78 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



In a, future paper we propose to treat of the plants most suitable 

 for house culture. 



Charles M. Hovey criticised Mr. Rand's recommendation of 

 " good garden loam." This is a very general term, and unless a 

 person has removed to the country and formed a new place, the 

 soil of his garden is hardly fit for the general culture of pot plants. 

 He would say, good maiden loam, such as the top spit of a pasture. 

 Garden loam might answer for some things which are easily culti- 

 vated. Another point, noticed by Mr. Rand as very important, 

 especial!}^ for roses, is stirring the surface soil. Mr. Hovey agreed 

 with him, and had found it in five cases out of ten fully as beneficial 

 as repotting. 



Mr. Rand thought Mr. Hovey's criticism on the expression 

 "garden loam" quite correct. He did not mean such loam as is 

 commonly dug out of gardens, but native loam. 



Marshall P. Wilder had been highly pleased with Mr. Rand's 

 article, and thought it would be productive of much good. He 

 desired to enforce the necessity of fresh, pure air, especially for 

 hard wooded plants which had been dried by heat and gas. He 

 grew plants at No. 4 Montgomery place, opposite the hall, from 

 1827 to 1832, and among them were camellias, which he procured 

 from Mr. Haggerston, of the Charlestown Vineyard, and which 

 formed the foundation of his present collection of several hundred 

 plants. He found it very important, especially for the camellias 

 and plants of similar character, to give them air on a mild day, 

 such as we sometimes have in March. By this management, and 

 keeping them dormant in a northern room until it was time for 

 them to bloom, he was very successful. Plants are tantalized bj^ 

 too much heat. 



Watering with liquid manure is a great improvement, but much 

 care should be taken to use it very weak. Mr. Mechi, who has 

 used it so extensively on his farm crops in England, prefers it 

 alipost colorless. M. Van Houtte has given very full directions 

 for preparing and using it ; he makes it from cow manure, and 

 lias it almost transparent. There is nothing so much neglected in 

 pot cultivation as thorough drainage. 



E. W. Buswell inquired wlietlier charcoal did not prevent the 

 tendency lo souring of the soil, which had been mentioned. His 

 practice had been to mix charcoal dust with the soil in pots which 



