HOT- HOUSE OR STOVE PLANTS. 



117 



figures. Many Peach-growers do not think it 

 necessary to give air through the early stages ; hut 

 buds as well as leaves are always strengthened by 

 having a circulation, and although progress may not 

 be quite so rapid at first, the result in the end is 

 always satisfactory. Therefore, in order to secure a 

 vigorous bloom that will set well, always force with 

 a circulation of air. When the blossoms begin to 

 open freely, 50° at night and 60° by day may be 

 taken as the mean until the fruit is set ; but the 

 amateur need not be afraid of allowing the house to 

 fall as low as 40° by daylight in severe weather, as 

 Peaches will and do frequently set well when the 

 mercury sometimes almost touches the freezing 

 point. This close sailing is not however advisable, 

 if it can be avoided ; but for the benefit of those who 

 have not had much experience in the matter, it may 

 not be out of place to make this point as clear as pos- 

 sible by assuring them that low night-heats will do no 

 harm. On the other hand, warmth from fermenting 

 materials combined with sun-heat sufficient to raise 

 the house to 70° will be beneficial during the time 

 the trees are in flower, as it ripens the pollen and 

 sets it at liberty in bright golden showers when the 

 air is warm and buoyant. 



After the fruit is set, renovate the fermenting 

 material to counteract the drying influence of the 

 hot-water pipes, and let the external temperature be 

 the guide in the maintenance of the internal heat, 

 allowing it to range from 56° to 60° at night, and 

 10° higher through fine days. In this way giving 

 and taking, as the elements are favourable or the 

 revei-se, carry the fruit up to the stoning process. 

 YVhen this period arrives, the fruit, to all external 

 appearance, will come to a dead stand ; but so long 

 as it does not turn yellow and fall off, there will be 

 no occasion for alarm, as the trees are undergoing a 

 hard and trying strain in supplying the calcareous 

 matter so essential to the formation of the stones. 

 As the stoning process will keep the fruit for some 

 four or five weeks at a given size, a steady day and 

 night temperature at or about the last - named 

 figures will give the trees and the fruit plenty of 

 time to go through their work ; they will then begin 

 to move, and move rapidly through the next swelling. 

 Then, and not till then, time must be caught up, 

 which was apparently lost through the early stages, 

 by running up to 75° or 80° after the house is closed 

 with sun-heat. But unless time is a very important 

 object, hard forcing should be discountenanced, as 

 the largest and best-flavoured Peaches are invariably 

 gathered from trees that can have rest by night and 

 moderate forcing through the day. From these 

 remarks it must not be inferred that a higher 

 temperature would be fatal, as Peaches in pots are 

 sometimes ripened off in Pine-stoves, but the fruit 



from trees so managed is inferior in flavour. More- 

 over, while ripening off a crop of Peaches, another 

 set of firm, short-jointed shoots must be secured for 

 the succeeding year, otherwise the increasing earli- 

 ness which is to be observed in starting the trees 

 in succeeding seasons will soon come to an end, as it 

 is of no use trying to start a house in November 

 unless the w r ood is in a satisfactory condition. 



It is hardly necessary to say that a house started 

 one year in December, will more readily respond to 

 the same heats in the following year, although it 

 may be closed a little earlier ; while houses that are 

 started later, say in January and February, when 

 forcing is no longer dead against nature, and solar 

 heat and light are in the ascendant, will stand an all- 

 round rise of five degrees with impunity. 



Late houses that are allowed to break naturally or 

 with gentle excitement by closing in the afternoon, 

 do not really require fire-heat at all, unless the 

 nights are frosty or the atmosphere is thick, cold, 

 and laden with moisture, wmen gentle warmth from 

 the pipes is of the greatest service, not only for 

 keeping out the damp air, but also for ripening the 

 pollen and keeping the petals dry when the trees are 

 in flower. With the exception of this short period, 

 fire-heat, until the wood requires ripening, is not 

 absolutely necessary for the production of the finest 

 Peaches that an English grower can obtain. 



The latest houses, as well as wall-cases from which 

 very late crops are required, do not receive winter 

 firing unless the weather is unusually severe, and 

 there is danger of the buds, which may have got a 

 little forward, being killed. At all other times, by 

 night and day these structures are kept fully venti- 

 lated, and as cool as possible, to retard the flowers. 

 When the flowers open, a little heat may be needed 

 to keep the petals dry and set the pollen at liberty, 

 otherwise shy kinds like Walburton Late Admirable 

 do not always set well. After the fruit is set ex- 

 treme ventilation is again resorted to and fire-heat 

 is dispensed with, until it is again wanted in the 

 autumn to ripen up the wood. 



HOT-HOUSE OR STOVE PLANTS. 



By William Hugh Gower. 



Mackaya. — Acanthaceous plants of great beauty. 

 The name commemorates Dr. Mackay, the author of 

 the " Flora Hibernica ; " it is unfortunate, however, 

 that there is another genus Mackaya, in the order 

 Loasacece, with which this must not be confounded. 

 Pot in peat and loam. Intermediate House. 



M. bella. — A handsome shrubby plant, with long, 

 slender branches ; leaves three to four inches long, 



