GEXEEAL TREATMEXT. 



209 



of water, either in the pots or by being spilt on the floor, should be 

 guarded against, as it has a great tendency to create damp, which, settling 

 on the leaves, would be very injurious to them, and cause many of them 

 to fall off, and endanger most of the herbaceous and soft-wooded sorts, 

 which are hable under all cases to rot off. All dead leaves should be 

 pieked off' as they appear, and the plants often turned, so that all sides of 

 them may enjoy an equal share of hght. 



Towards spring the plants should be all gone over, suppoiting such as 

 require it, clearing the surface of the mould in the pots, examining them 

 in respect to drainage, Sac. About the beginning of February air must be 

 again freely admitted during all fine days, and this must be increased as 

 the season advances, until the lights can be left partly open duiing the 

 night, and finally removed altogether. A^ air is increased, so should water 

 also in the same proportion. 



During spring, some plants may require to be sliifted into larger pots ; 

 when this is apparent, the operation must by no means be put off till 

 the general shifting takes place, but be done immediately. Shifting at 

 this period may be necessary- from two causes, viz., to increase the size of 

 the plant when such is desirable, and when the mould, from imperfect 

 draining or other causes, gets too much saturated with moisture. In 

 regard to watering at all seasons, there is one rule that should not be 

 departed from, namely, that the plants be permitted to become partially 

 dry before water be apphed to them, because, when kept continually wet, 

 the mould loses that active quality which is so necessary to vegetation, 

 and the plant, as Gushing justly observes, in consequence " will assume a 

 very unhealthy appearance, which many might not perhaps attribute to 

 the proper cause." 



The arrangement of plants in greenhouses appears to be but httle 

 understood ; the old practice of placing them indiscriminately upon the 

 shelves of the stage, keeping in view only the end of having a regular 

 sloping bank of foliage, without, as it were, one leaf being allowed to stand 

 higher than its neighbour, is most absurd. At the same rime we are 

 aware, that from the materials to be operated upon, and the size of the 

 field of operation, little can be effected in giving a picturesque character 

 to the mass ; nor do we think this absolutely necessary. But one thing 

 we know to be certain, that many a valuable plant is destroyed because 

 it happens, from sheer neglect on the part of the cultivator, that it may 

 have run up with a naked stem, having only a few leaves at the top, or 

 it may have, from neglect or accident, become less rigorous and hand 

 some in its appearance than many robust plants around it : such a plant 



p 



