FORCING OP ROSES. 183 



The fire should be lighted at seven in the morning, 

 and suffered to burn out about the same hour in 

 the evening, unless in frosty weather, when it 

 must be kept burning till late at night, so as to 

 exclude the frost; and for this purpose double 

 mats should be placed on the lights. The ther- 

 mometer should not, by fire heat, be higher in the 

 day than 60 during December and January : at 

 night it may sink to 35 without injury. The 

 temporary rise in a sunny day is of no conse- 

 quence. When the sun begins to have power, and 

 in sunny weather towards the end of February, 

 air should be given daily, and the plants be 

 syringed every morning about ten o'clock with 

 tepid water, and smoked with tobacco at night 

 on the least appearance of the aphis or green fly. 

 To ensure a fine and full crop of flowers, the 

 plants should be established one year in pots, and 

 plunged in tan or sawdust in an open exposed 

 place, so that their shoots are well ripened : the 

 pots must be often removed ; or, what is better, 

 they should be placed on slates to prevent their 

 roots striking into the ground; but with the 

 Hybrid and Damask Perpetuals, even if only 

 potted in November previous, a very good crop 

 of flowers may often be obtained, and a second 

 crop better than the first ; for the great advantage 

 of forcing Perpetual Roses is that after blooming 

 in the greenhouse or drawing-room, their young 

 shoots may be cut down to within two or three 



