WATEEING. 23 



Little more need be said upon this subject, save that 

 the sieve, so necessary to some cultivators, should be 

 utterly discarded, and the soil pi-epared by being chopped 

 into pieces with a spade ; by the time it is mixed together 

 it becomes sufficiently fine, and needs no sifting. 



"WATERING. 



ilFTER 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 in- 

 crease 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 play, to refresh and keep the foliage clean and 

 to create a genial moist atmosphere, which is so essential 

 to tropical plants. Care must, however, be taken that the 

 syringe is not used with the sun shining fully upon the 

 house, or the result will be the burning of the leaves, and 

 the disfigurement of the plants for a long time. There are 

 also some few kinds of plants that do not like to have 

 water thrown over their leaves, and the peculiarities of 

 these must be attended to. As the season of growth draws 

 to a close, and the days become shorter and colder, the 

 atmosphere of the stove must be gradually reduced to a 

 drier state, and less water must be given to the plants, both 

 to the roots and overhead, but the plants must never be 

 allowed to flag for want of water, for as their beauty de- 

 pends upon their foliage, this would ruin their appearance. 



