MANAGEMENT OF GREEN-HOUSE PLANTS. ' 99 



be kept from the external air, and watered very sparingly. 

 When water is necessary, it should be applied in the morn- 

 ing of a mild sunny day. Tlie plants should be kept free 

 from decayed leaves, and the earth at the top of the pots 

 should be sometimes loosened to a moderate depth, and 

 replenished with a portion of rich compost. 



Plants kept in private houses are often killed with kind- 

 ness. The temperature of a room in winter need not be 

 more than ten degrees above freezing. If plants are healthy, 

 they may be kept so by attention to tlie preceding hints ; 

 unhealthiness generally arises from their being subjected to 

 the extremes of heat, cold, or moisture, or from total neg- 

 lect.* 



In order that the ideas above advanced may be duly con- 

 sidered, it may be useful to indulge in a more minute de- 

 scription of the nature of plants, and to show in what man- 

 ner the elements operate upon them. It is an acknowledged 

 fact, that the roots of plants require moisture, and therefore 

 penetrate the earth in search of it, and that the plants them- 

 selves are greatly nourished by air, and spread their branches 

 and leaves to catch as much as possible its enlivening influ- 

 ence. Light also is so far essential, that there can be no 

 colour without it ; witness the blanching of celery and en- 

 dive, where the parts deprived of light become white ; place 



* An amateur florist of this city has suggested the following hints in 

 regard to the management of plants in rooms. He says that he keeps his 

 plants in a room, the windows of which, having a southern exposure, will 

 admit the sun all day. The plants are placed on a table with rollers at- 

 tached to the legs, which in moderate weather is kept as near to the glass 

 as possible. In cold weather he removes the table into the middle of the 

 room, and places a pail of water near the plants to attract the frost. He 

 considers it a great mistake to suppose that plants kept in warm rooms re- 

 quire much fire heat, on the contrary, he contends, that a moderate degree 

 of cold will agree with plants much better than a very high temperature. 

 He, however, considers it needless to attempt to keep plants in a cold 

 room, the windows of which face the north. A southeastern, or even 

 eastern exposure may answer without any fire, except in very cold wea- 

 ther. It may be observed, farther, that excessive moisture injures plants 

 more than drought, and that plants in general do not require water while 

 the surface of the earth in the pots is moist. 



