ON EEARIXG FLOTTERS. 



171 



and potted into fresh soil in pots of a smaller size than 

 those which they previously occupied. 



Whatever advantages may be derived from good pot- 

 ting, these will be all counteracted if the plants are not 

 watered attentively and cautiously ; as either too much 

 or too little water would be highly injurious to them. 

 The prevailing error in watering these plants, is to 

 apply water to the whole collection at the same time, 

 and in equal quantities, whether they require it or not; 

 and, certainly, a system more calculated to injure or 

 destroy all the plants that are subjected to such treat- 

 ment cannot well be imagined. Indeed, where such a 

 system is practised, (which is too generally the case,) 

 instead of it being strange and unaccountable that the 

 plants never thrive well, it is a matter of surprise that 

 they exist at all, under such treatment. If a man, 

 possessing a family of children of different ages, sizes, 

 and capacities for receiving and digesting food, were 

 to apportion a certain quantity of food to each of those 

 children, and compel them all to eat the portion allotted 

 to them, his conduct would be denounced as irrational 

 and cruel, and the health of some of the children would 

 suffer from an insufficient quantity of food, while that 

 of others would be equally or much more injured, by 

 receiving more than was necessary for them, or than 

 they were able to digest. But, perhaps, the individual 

 who denounced such a mode of proceeding, might pos- 

 sess an equal number of plants, the habits of which 

 might be still more diverse, and the circumstances in 

 which they were placed might render such treatment 

 much more prejudicial to them ; and yet such an 

 individual would probably administer to them all an 

 equal quantity of food, (water,) without considering that 

 the results would be precisely the same as in the case 

 of the children, and that such treatment must promote 

 disease, and, perhaps, ultimately cause death. These 

 cases bear the most perfect and striking analogy to 

 each other ; and the inference naturally follows, that all 

 plants, but more especially plants in pots, should be 

 watered whenever they may require it, and only then. 

 The best criterion for performing this operation is, when 



