to he turned out during Summer. 187 



impregnated with moisture, have every energy destroyed, and 

 are often virtually dead long before appearances indicate it. 

 This is too often effected by the universally recommended bell 

 and hand glasses, producing a stagnation that speedily converts 

 the very source of life into the cause of death, and renders the 

 most extreme caution in watering necessary, the least excess 

 fatal. But, allowing plants so treated ultimately to succeed, 

 being placed where they can exist without an effort, it cannot be 

 supposed that they will produce roots with the same despatch 

 as those that are forced to maintain a continual struggle, and 

 feel the want of them. For the sort of cuttings we are speaking 

 of, during the early part of the season, double glass is altogether 

 unnecessary : watering them overhead during sunshine, while air 

 is admitted, will prove of more service than covering them with 

 glasses or shading, a practice that ought to be avoided. 



The inexperienced will find a frame with a little bottom heat, 

 covered 4 or 5 inches deep with light soil, the cuttings planted 

 in the soil, a most efficient apparatus ; and those who possess a 

 stove or hot-house will find that cuttings in pots, plunged in the 

 bark-bed, and fully exposed to the light, will root without further 

 trouble. 



But, as I have already said, this is too simple an affair to be 

 termed a difficulty; but the introduction of so many plants into 

 the houses at a time when those wintered there are beginning to 

 grow, and require more room, is a serious evil ; to remove which 

 as soon as possible, we are apt either to turn out the plants 

 before the proper season, when they often suffer so much from 

 premature exposure, that we are forced to replenish the beds, or 

 endure their squalid appearance during half the season ; or to 

 retain the young plants, fifty or sixty together, in the cutting- 

 pots, until they are finally turned out. This, no doubt, saves 

 room, the labour of potting, and watering in a great measure ; 

 but it is the practice of the sluggard, and ought to be avoided 

 with all his doings, as the plants invariably thrive better when 

 potted singly, and allowed to establish themselves in the pots. 

 To avoid these habits, and still retain house-room for more 

 important purposes, select a sheltered spot, fully exposed to the 

 sun, over which erect a temporary framework of rafters to 

 support a roller, with canvass or matting. Cover the bottom 

 of the space enclosed with sand. When the plants have been 

 potted off, the pots filled with roots, and tolerably hardened, let 

 them be taken to this shelter, carefully turned out of the pots, 

 and each plant placed upon a small piece of turf previously 

 placed upon the sand. As the plants are not expected to 

 increase much in size while they remain here, they may be 

 placed rather close together, thereby sheltering each other, and 

 making the most of the space covered. As the plants are 



