33S OF INSECTS, &C. 



plants will have imbibed all the moisture, and the 

 paths will be perfectly dry. 



When 1 lived at the Botanic Gardens, Chelsea, 

 I observed in hard Winters, when we were obliged 

 to keep strong fires in the stoves night and day, 

 that the plants which stood on shelves in the dry 

 stoves were so scorched up that the leaves used to 

 drop off, as from deciduous trees in Autumn, which 

 gave them a very disagreeable appearance. This 

 induced me to consider what could be done to pre- 

 vent it ; when the following method occurred to 

 me : about eight in the morning, when the sun 

 shone out, and there was the appearance of a fine 

 day, I threw in water till it covered the floor, which 

 was of tile, from one to two inches deep, and kept 

 the house shut the whole of the day, unless the 

 thermometer rose to about eighty degrees, which 

 seldom happens at that season of the year ; in that 

 case I opened the door to admit a little air. By 

 the middle of the day the water was entirely ex- 

 haled, and the floor perfectly dry. This I used to 

 repeat two or three times a week, in sunny wea- 

 ther : the plants in about a week's time began to 

 throw out their foliage, and in a fortnight or three 

 weeks they were in full leaf. This success induced 

 me to take the same method with the tan stoves 

 and other houses in Summer, when troubled with 

 insects, and 1 had the satisfaction to find that it 

 had the desired effect. 



