404 T1IE HOT-HOUBE. [May. 



casual irregularities occur in the shoots or branches, prune or 

 regulate them as may be required, and cut away any decayed 

 parts; observing the same general directions as in the two pre- 

 ceding months. 



Propagating the Plants. 



You may still continue to propagate such plants as you desire 

 by cuttings, layers, suckers and seeds in the manner directed in 

 March and April. 



Any time in this month you may plant cuttings or slips of cac- 

 tuses, euphorbiums, aloes, agaves, sedums, mesembryanthemums, 

 stapolias, and other succulent plants, laying them in a dry, shady 

 place a week or ten days, according as they are more or less suc- 

 culent, before they are planted, that the wounded parts may heal 

 over, otherwise they are subject to imbibe too much moisture and 

 rot. When they are planted they should be placed in the shade or 

 plunged in the tan-pit till newly rooted, giving them a little water 

 as necessity may require. The hardy sorts may be planted in a 

 bed of light sandy earth, where, if they are screened with mats for 

 some time, they will freely take root. 



Bringing out the Hot-House Plants. 



About the twenty-fifth of this month you may, in the middle 

 states, begin to bring out the hardier sorts of hot-house plants; if 

 they had been removed into the green-house eight or ten days pre- 

 viously, it would be of service, as there they would gradually be 

 prepared, hardened, and become in a good condition for a removal 

 into the open air. The more tender kinds should not be brought 

 out till the first week in June, but if previously removed into the 

 green-house for a week or ten days it would be the better way; 

 always observing, wherever they are, to give them abundance of 

 air to harden and prepare them for the transition. 



In the eastern states the above work is to be deferred, in every 

 instance, from one to two weeks later, according to climate and the 

 local situation of the place; and to the southward of the middle 

 states it may be done somewhat earlier. 



Should you have no pine-apples in your hot-house, and there 

 arc plants permanently growing in any beds or borders therein, 

 the roof-lights should be totally taken oil" when the other plants are 

 out, that these may receive the full benefit of the open air during 

 the summer months, &c. 



As to the manner of placing and treating the pots when and after 

 being brought out, I would advise the same as recommended for 

 the green-house plants, which sec. 



You must be very careful when you plunge any of your pots to 

 make it a particular point to turn them around in their seats once a 

 week, in order that such roots as run into the ground through the 

 holes in the bottoms may be broken offj for though these would, 

 for the moment, encourage the growth of the plants, when you 



