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CULTIVATION AND ANALYSIS OF PLANTS. Mi 
shaded nooks; Festuca ceca, which is a fine ornamental grass for pots or vases, and con- 
trasts well with the Holcus lanatus, or Velvet-Grass, which is of a silvery appearance and 
not unlike the common ribbon-grass of our gardens, but of finer texture. These four 
Grasses which we have singled out form a neat little collection for indoor culture when 
grown together, even without any admixture with other plants. A generally acceptable 
soil for the growth of nearly all Grasses, is made up of equal parts of cow-manure, leaf- 
mold, loam and sand well mixed; and all Grasses like water, but not stagnant moisture. 
HHAT EHS. 
widely spread in the countries where that literature had its rise, 
the Heaths have been but little cultivated in the United States, 
although it is now recognized that twenty-six of the genera are 
natives of this country. The order is scientifically called Ericacee, 
from Erica, the Heath proper, the accepted type of the family. There 
are five or more suborders, perhaps seventy genera, and about eleven hundred 
MARA species, besides uncounted varieties. Erica carnea, fleshy Heath, so called on 
account of its flesh-colored bloom, and Erica Mediterranea, or Heath of the 
Mediterranean, whose bloom is of a somewhat darker flesh-color, are cultivated 
by our florists and others, and are much valued as exotics. They make desir- 
able window plants if plentifully supplied with moisture and protected from 
excessive heat, whether artificial or natural. The more common indigenous sorts are the 
Kalmia, or Sheep Laurel; the Azalea arborescens (Tree-like Azalea), or False Honey- 
suckle; the Rhododendron, or Rosebay; the Rhodora Canadensis, or Canadian Rhodora; 
the Ledum latifolium, or Broad-leaved Labrador Tea; the Andromeda in several species; 
the Vaccinium in a large number of species, known in the vernacular as Blueberry, Cran- 
berry, etc.; Gaylussacia, or Huckleberry; and the Pyrola, or False Wintergreen. 
All these members of the Ericacee family are of easy culture, but, being originally 
natives of bogs, downs and sheltered mountain dells, they grow best on northern slopes, 
behind fences or evergreens, or otherwise protected from the noonday sun as well as from 
drying winds. Like the Begonias, they delight in a steady supply of uniform moisture. 
The fibrous rootlets are very fine, and extremely sensitive to deleterious substances, such 
as clods of half-rotted manure, lumps of clayey, uncongenial soils, and the like. 
The best compost for their growth is three parts leaf-mold, one of sharp sand, one 
of common earth, and one of well-rotted manure. Commonly growing upon a sub- 
stratum of freestone, a limestone or other calcareous subsoil is hurtful, and the application 
of lime-water is accordingly found to be pernicious; hence rainwater should alone be used. 
An occasional dose of liquid manure will prove acceptable to these plants when in flower 
or when making a new growth. The Ledums, Kalmias, the small plants of the best 
varieties of the Rhododendron, the Azalea nudiflora, and other dwarf members of the 
\ family, besides the two imported species already mentioned, make pretty house plants. 
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