AN EXPLANATION OF TERMS 



exposed to the air and sunshine ; consequently, much 

 labour in watering is avoided. " Plunging " is commonly 

 done in ashes or fibre, not in the soil. Then worms and 

 other undesirable creatures do not find their way into the 

 flower pot. If " plunging " must be done in the soil, 

 there should be a space between the bottom of the pot 

 and the base of the hole. 



Potting On. You " pot on " a plant when you give 

 it a shift into a larger flower pot ; but you 



Pot Off seedlings or cuttings that are growing thickly 

 in boxes or pots, when each one is given a little flower 

 pot to itself. 



Prick Off. To " prick off " a seedling is much easier 

 than it sounds. You not only do not actually prick it, 

 but use your utmost endeavours to avoid doing so, or 

 the result is invariably the untimely death of the little 

 plant. No ; " pricking off " consists merely in trans- 

 ferring seedling plants from one flower pot to another, 

 from one box to another, or to the border out of doors, 

 and in placing them at wider distances apart, so that 

 they may have more space in which to " grow on." 



Ripen Off. When the foliage of a deciduous (leaf- 

 losing) plant fades and falls, it needs less moisture at the 

 roots, and, as a rule, a lower temperature. The gardener 

 " ripens it off " by giving less water and more air. 



Rose. A " rose," fair reader, is, when you come to 

 gardening terms, not only a flower, the queen of flowers, 

 but a sort of cap, full of little holes, that you place on the 

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