18 STOVE PLANTS. 



to the plants, to prevent them suffering from the slight 

 check which repotting naturally must give them, and to 

 encourage them to put forth fresh roots more quickly. The 

 only difference in shifting or repotting large and small 

 plants is, that in the case of the latter, the plant can 

 remain in the hand of the operator, and the stand need 

 not he brought into use. Those plants which have strong, 

 coarse roots may have a large shift each time, but care must 

 be taken not to over-pot those having fine and delicate 

 roots, as it is far better to repot twice, or three times, 

 than to risk the health if not the life of a plant by over- 

 potting. 



Little more need be said upon this subject, save that the 

 sieve, so necessary to some cultivators, should be utterly dis- 

 carded, and the soil prepared by being chopped into pieces 

 with a spade ; by the time it is mixed together, it becomes 

 sufficiently fine, and needs ho sifting. Those plants which 

 bloom better when kept in small pots, and which are not to be 

 shifted, should, at the period when others are repotted, have 

 the surface of the soil in their pots stirred, some of the worn- 

 out material being removed, and replaced with new. 



WATERING. 



PTER the potting season, and as soon as the roots 

 have begun to run freely in the new soil, water 

 will have to be supplied more liberally than during 

 the winter, or resting period ; while, as the days increase in 

 length, and the sun in power, scarcely too much can be given 

 to Stove Plants, if the roots are in an active state and 

 abundant throughout the soil, and the drainage is in good 

 order. At this period, too, the syringe must be brought into 



