Culture of the Orange. 219 



shade the frame against the burning rays of the sun, and when 

 frosts are no longer to be feared, take the lights off entirely. 

 When they have done their growth, and the wood is sufficiently 

 ripened, pot them afresh, and leave them in a greenhouse for a 

 week or two. In June make a hotbed in the open air, covered 

 five or six inches with dung-mould or cocoa refuse, and put them 

 in it. This is the last season during which the oranges need be 

 grown upon hot dung bed. The greatest obstacle to the well 

 growing of the oranges in England is the persistence of the gar- 

 deners and nurserymen in treating it as a greenhouse plant. I do not 

 mean to say the oranges should be left like our common shrubs, but 

 it is possible, with very little care, to grow them in England almost 

 as well as in northern France. Many writers on this subject give 

 the south exposure as the best for an orangery, and therein is the 

 mistake. To insure the success of oranges grown in boxes or in 

 pots, they must not in any cases le allowed to grow in the houses ; 

 all their growth must be made out of doors ; and it is a matter of 

 fact, that if the orangery is to the south, no matter what the trouble 

 you take to prevent their starting, the plants will be beginning to 

 shoot a long time before the weather is mild enough to permit 

 of their being placed in the garden. A good orangery should have 

 a northern exposure, with plenty of windows to admit the light, 

 and every convenience to give full air when it is not frosty. It will 

 be very easy to heat the orangery in such a position, as the tem- 

 perature required is only two or three degrees over the freezing 

 point. It must be remembered that oranges are grown out of 

 doors all the year round in parts of France and Spain whers 

 it freezes every winter. If the plants, after all the care taken to 

 prevent their growth in the houses, begin to vegetate, and if 

 the young shoots are more than an inch in length, it would be far 

 preferable to cut them back than to let them retain a growth 

 which is sure to be disfigured and spoiled in the open air. The 

 watering of the oranges must be very carefully done, as too much 

 water would be more pernicious than too little, and especially for the 

 large plants, where the soil is in greater quantity j one or two in- 



