On the Management of Plants in Rooms. 1 1 



in the pleasure-ground or garden, would be very imposing. Unpalata- 

 ble as the fruit is, there would be no danger of its being touched ; while 

 any of our fine fruit trees, in the same situation, might be subject to 

 continual depredations. — Conds. 



Art. III. On the Management of Plants in Rooms. By Rob- 

 ert Murray, Gardener to the Hon. Theodore Lyman, Jr., 

 Walthani. 



Gentlemen, 



Amidst the rigors of stern winter, how delightful it is to 

 exhale the balmy odors of a few select plants ; even the 

 lovely blush of the expanded rose, when the whole face of 

 nature is clad in a mantle of snow, might entice the most 

 careless admirers of Flora to supply their parlors with these 

 delightful harbingers of pleasure through the winter months. 

 But in all the numbers of your valuable Magazine, I have 

 never observed any hints on the management of green- 

 house plants kept in rooms or parlors. In order to supply 

 this deficiency, I have, in as brief a manner as possible, en- 

 deavored to give a few remarks, which may not, perhaps, be 

 unimportant. You are aware that it would require too much 

 room to enter into a minute detail, and enumerate a great 

 number of species and varieties, with the modes of propa- 

 gation ; I shall, therefore, confine my remarks to those 

 kinds most generally grown in such situations. 



In the first place, I shall treat on the proper soils, and the 

 potting or shifting of the plants ; — secondly, how to arrange 

 the plants on the stages or in the windows ; — thirdly, on the 

 watering of the plants ; — fourthly and lastly, how to destroy 

 insects that may annoy them. 



I shall now begin by considering the plants procured from 

 a friend, or purchased from the nurseryman or seedsman, 

 and take the first part of the subject, namely, soils and pot- 

 ting. I may here merely mention that all the soft wooded 

 kinds will do very well in a good rich loam with a quantity 

 of vegetable mould or decayed tree leaves (I would strong- 

 ly recommend that a quantity of vegetable mould be kept in 

 store, as it will suit almost every variety of plant); the 

 same may be said of myrtles, oranges, lemons, Aucuha ja- 

 ponica, Ferbena tryphylla [.vSloysia citriodora], &c., but not 

 quite so light ; the most part of the shrubby, or hard wood- 



