564! THE GKEEN-HOUSE: 



In preparing the new pot for it, place first a hand- 

 ful of shivers, or clean round gravel at bottom ; then 

 as much earth as will raise the surface of the ball 

 to within about an inch of the rim of the pot, more 

 or less, according to its size. Place the plant with 

 its stem exactly in the centre of the pot, and fill in 

 the earth all round, which should be broke fine \ 

 frequently shaking the pot to settle it well down 

 between its sides and the ball, that there may be no 

 cavity left. The whole should be filled to within 

 half an inch of the brim, if a middle-sized pot, and 

 to within an inch, if a large one ; this being suffi- 

 cient room to hold water, as the whole will subside 

 a little afterwards* 



A few broken pot shivers, or a little clean gravel, 

 the size of garden-peas or horse-beans, should uni* 

 fonnly be laid in the bottom of all pots ; than 

 which, nothing is more conducive to the health 

 of the plants, they being thus drained of extra 

 moisture. 



Plants that require to be shifted into larger pots 

 than those they may be in, for the extension of their 

 growth, and which are not matted at root, but whose 

 pots are just full of fibres, should be carefully taken 

 out ; it being proper, in this case, to keep the balls 

 entire. To answer this end, the earth should be 

 made in a state neither wet nor dry, by previously 

 giving water to, or withholding it from such plants, 

 as are intended to be shifted ; as in such a state the 

 ball will keep better together than in any other. 

 Observe the method of potting, as directed above ; 



and let the new pot be so much larger than the ball, 



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