252 THE PLEASURE GROUND. 



dry, and should not be allowed to suffer from too 

 much moisture. By the beginning or middle of 

 March, the atmosphere will, in general, be getting 

 more congenial to vegetation, when the plants may 

 have occasional syringings over head, in order to 

 refresh and clean their foliage from the dust that 

 may have accumulated on them, during the suspen- 

 sion of the syringe or engine. The advantage of a 

 fine morning should be taken for performing the 

 watering, in order that the house may be immediately 

 ventilated, so that the damp may be dried up before 

 evening, which will prevent any of the tender shoots 

 from being chilled ; but as the season advances, 

 and the nights become warm, the engine may be 

 more freely applied, and the water administered in 

 the evenings, in order that the plants may have 

 time to refresh themselves with the moisture, during 

 the night, and before the return of the scorching 

 effects of the sun, the ensuing day. 



When the weather begins to get warm in Spring, 

 a little air should be let in, during the nights, to 

 both the Greenhouse and Conservatory ; and as the 

 external atmosphere increases in mildness, the ad- 

 mission of air should be increased accordingly ; as 

 a large current of this element, circulating through 

 the house at all favourable opportunities, will keep 

 the plants from being drawn up into a weak or lan- 

 guid state, and getting naked at the bottom ; conse- 

 quently, air should only be excluded in frosty or 

 severe cold weather. If the lights are only opened 

 for a few hours, in the early part of the day, and 

 again shut up early in the afternoon, it will be very 



