862 FLOEISTS' FLOWERS. 



beyond slight sprinklings with the syringe. When the 

 buds begin to push, they should be taken out of the old 

 soil, and then the roots should be reduced, and the plants 

 repotted into smaller pots, using the compost previously 

 recommended. Place them in a cold frame, where they 

 should be kept close until the new roots begin to occupy 

 the soil, when air should be admitted — at first gradually, 

 afterwards more fully, but always so as to avoid cold rains. 

 The plants first cut back will, under ordinary circumstances, 

 have grown into nice bushes, and should be potted into 

 their blooming-pots, and receive their last stopping about 

 tho last week in October, whilst the succession plants may 

 remain to the end of December. If the plants are grown 

 in a lean-to house they will require turning round fre- 

 quently. Perfect light, abundance of air, and a tempe- 

 rature ranging between 40° and 45° during winter, are 

 indispensable for the proper development of fine leaves 

 and flowers. 



Petunia. 



A genus of Solanacea, which in the hands of the florist 

 has been improved as much, or probably more than any 

 other which has been operated upon. Petunias are very 

 gay flowers, the single ones being most efi'ective as bedding 

 plants, and the double forms making exquisite specimens 

 for pot culture, supplying abundance of flowers for the 

 decoration of the greenhouse, and for cutting for bouquets or 

 dressing vases. There are a vast quantity of varieties in 

 cultivation, which have sprung from the intermixture of 

 the white-flowered P. nyctaginiflora and the rosy purple P. 

 violacea. They should be grown in rich sandy loam, with 

 a little well-decomposed manure and good leaf mould 

 added. 



