208 



THE MIXED GREEXHOUSE. 



The surface of the mould should be regulated, cleared of moss or -^veeds, 

 and a fresh top surface laid over it. The pots should be all well 

 cleaned on the outside, even by Tvashing, and the plants fresh staked, 

 tied in, and pruned of luxuriant or straggling branches. When this is 

 completed, they may be taken in and arranged upon the stages, but set 

 as Avide apart as possible, so that the air may circulate freely among 

 them. 



The front lights, when they have been removed from the greenhouse, 

 should not be for a few weeks fixed in their places, as it is an object of much 

 consequence that as great a supply of air as can be admitted be allowed 

 to circulate through them. It is seldom that the frosts of the early part 

 of autumn are so severe as to injure greenhouse plants not immediately 

 exposed to their Veitical effect. By the middle of November, unless un- 

 usually severe fi'ost occur, the front and end sashes may be replaced, and 

 ventilation carried on by the usual means of opening and shutting them 

 morning and evening. What gardeners usually call ripening the wood, 

 that is, inducing a habit of close, short jointed branches to form, but not 

 too luxuriant ones, should be artterded to, and wliich is, as far as regards 

 the sort of pb.nrs nhder coi^jric^eratlon, easily- effected by shortening the 

 sti'ong brpnches to cause them to send oiu m^ny smaller ones, and by 

 allov^ing them plenty of mom to stand on, as well as abundance of air 

 when first taken into the house. Ey getting plants into this habit, they 

 will fit\ref much finer, 'be leSs ' Uable" to sustair fr.jury during winter, 

 and be general appearance much superior to rhose which are allowed 

 to grow in a rambling and'"la-aij'ikiit mannd:^. " 



Damp must be ixpelled b^ occai«;ioKaI fires, to be appUed during the 

 day when ventilation can be fully used, and frost by the same means 

 during night. We have elsewhere observed that these plants are oftener 

 injured by having too much fire heat given them than by a want of it. 

 Few greenhouse plants will suffer from cold in a well-glazed house until 

 the the-rmometer fail to about thiity-seven degrees, and never should the 

 temperatm-e be raised above forty-eight degrees by artificial means. But 

 in ail greenhouses, if this temperatm*e can be kept up without fire heat, by 

 means of covering, &c., so much the better. 



Plants when first brought into the house should have abundance of 

 water, as they are then deprived of the humidity that they would absorb 

 from the damp ground they stand on during summer, and also of the 

 dews at night and occasional showers. But this element should be 

 gradually withdrawn from them afterwards, and no more given them 

 dming winter than to keep them in good health. All imnecessary waste 



