General Notices. 235 



time after they have done blossoming. They are tlien allowed to become 

 quite dry, previously to being cut down ; the pots are laid on their sides, and 

 piled up one above the other, in any snug corner, below a stage ; but they 

 should not be exposed to a lower temperature than 35° ; 40° minimum Avould 

 be safer. They winter better in the pots they were flowered in, than if 

 taken out and placed in drawers, as, under such circumstances, they are 

 apt to rot. 



With a view to keep up the best series of successions, the first batch of 

 tubers should be started in tlie beginning of February, the second, in the 

 beginning of April, and tlie third, in tlie latter end of May, or at any time 

 between these periods, according to circumstances; but if excited later than 

 this, they would do little service to the amateur who has not the assistance 

 of a stove. 



The tubers (before starting them) should be shaken out of the pots in 

 which they have flowered, placed in small shallow pans, with a little fine 

 earth about tliem, and transferred to a cucumber or melon frame, in which a 

 temperature of between 70° and 80° is kept up. But if a heat of this kind 

 cannot be obtained, tlien 60°, with rather an abundance of atmospheric 

 moisture, will suit them equally well. Move the plants from the pans in 

 which tliey were excited, when they are an inch or two in height, and put 

 them into their flowering pots at once. In doing this, tlie requisite number 

 of tubers is placed at equal distances over the pot — five is tlie number we 

 employ for a wide moutlied 6-inch pot : we prefer this pot to the more up- 

 right kind, for it contains a greater surface, and the roots of Achimenes run 

 rather shallow. For growing fine specimens, pans should be used a foot 

 over, and 6 inches deep, ten plants being employed to fill the pan. 



The soil I use is a mixture of turfy-loam and peat, witli a little well-de- 

 composed cowdung and silver sand, all in rather a rough state, with a good 

 proportion of drainage. In filling the pots, I place the rougher soil at the 

 bottom, and fill up with the finer. The plants are then inserted, witli their 

 tubers, an inch below the surface. They are watered with a little chilled 

 water, (using a fine-rosed pot) to settle the soil about their roots. Thus pot- 

 ted, they are again placed in heat (about 60°,) with rather a moist atmos- 

 phere, and plunged in a gentle bottom heat. 



Tubers excited in April, and after that, will not require this heat; and 

 even those first started, would do well without plunging, but I find them to 

 succeed better with it. Where a stove and plunging materials cannot be 

 had, a dung bed frame, with a gentle bottom heat, would effect the same 

 purpose, with this precaution, that a little air must be given at night, in- 

 creasing the supply by day ; and in bright weather the plants will require 

 shading, or the action of the sun on their leaves, when covered with the va- 

 pour from the bed, will blotch them, which would spoil their beauty. In- 

 deed, however well you treat them afterwards, all of them like a little shade, 

 by which the leaves are kept more healthy, and tlie flowers brighter, and the 

 latter hang longer. A late vinery, or a greenhouse, with creepers up the 

 rafters, suits them very well. 



The plants should be stopped back when they have grown 4 or 5 inches 



