TREATMEXT OUT OF DOORS, 



71 



tilting the lights up at the back of the pits and frames, but never to use 

 shading of any description. The Hghts to be drawn entirely off during 

 the night, except in rainy weather. With this mode of treatment, slight 

 waterings over head occasionally are beneficial." 



Heaths are not very subject to the attacks of insects ; the greenfly, 

 howeyer, sometimes assails them, but these are readily got rid of by shght 

 fumigations of tobacco. 



GENERAL TREATMENT OUT OF DOORS. 



A want of suflicient accommodation induces many to place a part if not 

 aU their heaths, as well as other greenhouse plants, out of doors ; and 

 habit, we beUeve, induces many more. The hardier and more free-growing 

 kinds may not suffer much from this practice, but the finer and more 

 deUcate sorts evidently do. "^^'e believe the rationale of turning exotic 

 plants into the open air, is to adopt the least of two e^ils ; for if they be 

 kept under glass during the growing season, and closely crowded together, 

 they suffer as much for want of fresh air as they would do if placed in a 

 sheltered situation in the open garden. It will be the most prudent 

 method to adopt, to take out only such as are hardy and robust, leaving 

 the more rare and tender sorts under cover ; in which they wiU then have 

 plenty of room. 



The season for taking heaths out of the house commences about the 

 end of April, when some of the hardiest kinds may be set out ; the next 

 hardier section in ^lay, and the next in June, retaining by all means the 

 most tender of aU in the house. A dry, sheltered, but not shaded 

 situation should, if possible, be chosen for them, — dry, to protect them 

 from a damp and impm'e atmosphere, — sheltered, to prevent them from 

 being broken or upset by the wind, and shaded only to the extent necessary' 

 to secure them from the fuU force of the sun's rays during the heat of the 

 day. A somewhat elevated platform, covered v,ith coal ashes, should be 

 formed for them, upon which they should stand, without being plunged. 

 If the spaces between the pots were filled with sphagnum, hypnum, or 

 other mosses, the whole might be made ornamental and extremely useful ; 

 first, by hiding the pots, and, secondly, by preventing the heat of the 

 sun, which is very injm^ious, from acting upon the roots, which are 

 extremely fine, dehcate, and always placed round the extremity of the 

 balls, and in close contact ^vith the pot. To avoid this, to save labour in 

 watering, and to prevent them from being blown down, some recommend 

 plunging them in the ground, or in the coal ash floor prepared for them ; 

 but this latter practice is, we think, objectionable, as the roots are \ery 



