280 A GUIDE TO FLORICULTURE. 



corresponding warmth with the room ; this can be easily 

 effected by keeping the water pot filled, and letting it re- 

 main twenty-four hours under the stand, before being used, 

 or by using a small quantity of warm water to take the 

 chill off To use water too freely, is as bad as none at all ; 

 for the roots of plants that elongate from the main body 

 are so formed as to suck up water like a sponge ; and in 

 cold weather the plant is unable to exercise its functions to 

 elaborate a great quantity at the leaves ; it will when in 

 a vigorous state. For this reason, the soil becomes sodded 

 and sours ; the roots being overcharged the plants will 

 sicken and die. There are some exceptions to this rule ; 

 for the Camellia Japonica requires a good supply in the 

 winter, to make their buds swell and expand ; so does the 

 Chrysanthemum, in the early part of the winter. The 

 practice of placing plants out of doors in the winter, when 

 it rains, is a bad practice. To place the Cacti family out, 

 or give them much water in the winter, is sure destruction. 

 The amateur generally succeeds with this class of plants, 

 and chiefly from neglect to water them, not by good man- 

 agement in other respects. A little culture of the Cacti 

 will generally correct all the evils attendant on them. No 

 plant in cultivation requires more than that the soil be 

 kept a little moist, unless plants are in a growing state. 

 It will be plainly seen that plants, overwatered, put on a 

 sickly hue, which is often mistaken by the novice for the 

 want of it, and more is applied, which entirely destroys 

 them. To obviate the evil in some measure, in potting 

 plants in the spring or fall, give them a good drainage ; 

 this is a term used among gardeners, and may not be fully 

 understood by others. It is simply this : when you pot a 



