80 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



sour. In repotting some of the roots are broken off, whicli causes 

 them to branch, as in root-pruning. Some plants, which naturally 

 grow to a large size, are by crowding the roots in pots forced into 

 bloom, and kept within such limits that they can be accommodated 

 in the greenhouse. One object of stirring the soil is its aeration. 

 This is a subject but little understood, but he held that plants 

 receive much nourishment from the air through the roots. 



Mr. Ilovey would not recommend stirring the soil as a perfect 

 substitute for repotting. If the soil is not stirred the water runs 

 off in one channel, but is diffused through the whole ball when the 

 soil is stirred. He had known camellias which had not had the 

 centre of the ball wet for a year, or even for a longer period. 

 English cultivators recommend driving an iron rod down through 

 the centre of the ball to permit water to permeate. It is also im- 

 portant that the pots should stand level, for if they do not the 

 water will not be equall}^ distributed. For many plants he pre- 

 ferred stirring the soil to potting in a large pot. 



Mr. Wilder referred to the remark of Gen. Dearborn, the first 

 president of the society, and one of the best cultivators of his 

 time, that water and air were the two great constituents of plant 

 life. 



William Gray, Jr., did not wholly agree with what had been 

 said as to the use of the sieve. He always passes his manure 

 through a sieve. He uses the soil coarse, but would have the 

 manure fine, and mixed intimately with the soil. The essayist had 

 said that the temperature of a room in which plants were grown 

 should rise and fall with the sun, but it would be impossible to 

 live in a room with an evening temperature of 42°, or to wait until 

 the sun raised it to 65° in the morning. He had grown Livistonas 

 and Draccenas in a living room successfully, and had brought in 

 azaleas from the greenhouse when in full flower, without injury. 

 The three plants now on exhibition had been thus treated for 

 twelve or fifteen years. 



Mr. Wilder agreed with Mr. Gray in regard to the Livistona 

 and Dracaena as doing well in the parlor, and added that Mr. 

 Hunnewell brings the green Dractcua {Brasiliensi.s) into his parlor 

 in tiie winter. 



Benjamin G. Smith said that he tried window gardening for 

 some time, but so unsuccessfully that he gave it u[) and built a 

 small conservatory. He used to be very particular to have the 



