HENDERSON'S HANDBOOK OF PLANTS. 



403 



TEP 



maintain Azaleas, Camellias, Verbenas, 

 Carnations, or Geraniums long in a 

 healthy state. The same rules follow as 

 to the propagating-house, showing the 

 necessity of observing the requirements 

 of their different natures. See Propaga- 

 tion of Plants by Cuttings. 



The subject is one that relates to so 

 many varieties and different conditions 

 of organism at the different seasons of 

 growth, that it is impossible to convey to 

 the inexperienced what these varieties 

 and conditions are; but our object is to 

 impress upon inexperienced readers what 

 we have long believed to be an important 

 truth, that the supplying the proper con- 

 ditions of temperature to plants under 

 glass, according to their different natures 

 and conditions, has as much to do with 

 their welfare as any other cause, if not 

 more ; and that often, when ascribing the 

 unhealthy state of a plant to uncongenial 

 soil or defective drainage, or the " damp- 

 ing off" of some favorite cutting to the 

 way it was cut or the sand it was put in, 

 the true and sole cause of failure was 

 nothing more than condemning them to 

 an atmosphere uncongenial to their na- 

 ture. 



Tephrosius. Of an ash gray color. 



Teres, Terete. Tapering; free from angles; 

 cylindrical, or nearly so. 



Ternaie, Ternary. Growing in threes; a 

 whorl of three. 



Tetra. In Greek compounds means four. 



Tetrachotomous. A stem that ramifies in 

 fours. 



Tetradynamous. Having six stamens, of j 

 which four are longer than the two 

 others. 



Tetragynous. Having four styles. 



Thallus. A fusion of root, stem, and leaves 

 into one general mass; the cellular mass 



TRE 



of which the lower cryptogamous plants 

 are entirely composed. 



Thyrse, (adj. Thyrsiform.) A kind of dense 

 panicle like that of the Lilac. 



Tomentose. Covered with cottony hairs. 



Tomentum. The down which produces the 

 tomentose character. 



Toothed. Dentate; having small divisions 

 on the margin. 



Top Dressing. See Fertilizer*. 



Tree. Any woody plant of perennial dura- 

 tion with a trunk or single stem rising 

 from the ground. 



Trenching. This is a means of preparing 

 the soil but little practiced in the United 

 States, though still much in use in old 

 English gardens. It consists in making 

 a trench from one and a half to two feet 

 deep, and of nearly the same width, the 

 earth from which is wheeled to the rear 

 of the ground to be trenched; then a 

 line is set across the bed to the width of 

 the excavation, (one and a half or two 

 feet, as it may be;) the top spit of this is 

 thrown in the bottom of the trench, the 

 under part being thrown on the top; in 

 a word, trenching is simply reversing the 

 soil, turning it upside down to such a 

 depth as may be decided on. The prac- 

 tice is proper enough in soils that are 

 deep enough; but when trenching is 

 practiced in say a top soil only twelve 

 inches deep, and a clayey subsoil is 

 thrown on the top, or even mixed well 

 with the top soil, injury may be done to 

 the soil from which it will never recover. 

 A subsoil of sand is not quite as bad 

 thrown on the top or mixed with the soil, 

 but in either case the subsoil should only 

 be loosened, as in Subsoiling, (which see,) 

 and allowed to remain without being 

 mixed with or thrown on the top of the 

 soil proper. 



