ON THE CAMELLIA AND ITS CULTURE. 375 



set it in a tub of water, leaving it there until thoroughly 

 soaked through. Plants that require larger pots or tubs, 

 of which we must judge by the quantity and condition of 

 the roots, may be at once transferred to such. The new 

 soil required to fill the outer circle of the larger pots 

 should be pressed down firmly with the fingers or a stick, 

 so that the outer circle of earth may be at once almost as 

 solid as the inner circle. 



Watering is a point of the very first importance. It is 

 here that the dog is often starved, and, perhaps, as often 

 surfeited. The ill name he has acquired is, I believe, in 

 nine cases out of ten due to too much or too little water. 

 A copious supply should be given during the flowering 

 and growing seasons when real work is going on, but at 

 other times great caution is needed. I am favourable to 

 the practice of watering freely at long intervals as the 

 plant becomes dry, rather than to the common practice 

 of giving small doses at shorter intervals. The starved 

 appearance, the yellow sickly leaves often met with, if not 

 due to too poor a soil, are due to injudicious watering. 

 Rain or pond water should be used in preference to any 

 other, and water containing lime should be studiously 

 avoided. The practical hand can tell when a plant wants 

 water by rapping or lifting the pot, thus testing the condi- 

 tion of the soil by sound and weight ; but by others, 

 whether water is required or not may be pretty accurately 

 judged of by the look of the plant, and by stirring the 

 surface of the soil. 



Either too much or two little water during the season 

 of rest will cause the dropping of the flower buds before 

 expansion. These results, however, are not due to this 

 cause alone, but to any fault of cultivation that induces 

 debility. There are, too, some kinds which are naturally 

 or constitutionally liable to this defect, and others the 

 flowers of which expand with difficulty. The best advice 

 I can give with regard to such is to have nothing to do 

 with them, they are the surly dogs of the pack, and there 



