402 



THE SCITAMINEiE, OR REEDY PLANT STOVE. 



treating of them in the Bulb House), the malpractice of keeping them 

 in a constant state of excitement is almost universally followed : nothing 

 an be worse than this, more unnatm-al, and indeed fatal to them ; and 

 were it not that both are so tenacious of existence, a continuation of the 

 practice would not only, as we daily see, prevent them from flowering, 

 but would in the end kill them altogether. All plants require a season 

 of rest, as much as animals require a season of sleep ; but some plants 

 show the effects of being deprived of that natural rest sooner than 

 others. 



On the culture of ginger we find the following simple and judicious 

 directions detailed by a correspondent in the Gardener's Magazine, vol. \u. 

 p. 577 : — " In the beginning of March I pot my ginger into small thirty- 

 twos, the compost I use being equal quantities of loam, rotten dung, and 

 leaf mould, well mixed together, but not sifted. As soon as I have 

 potted it, I give a Httle water to settle the soil, and then place it in a 

 nursery or stove, watering very sparingly until it begins to grow, when 

 it will require a regular supply. About the 1st of May, I remove it to 

 a deep pit, previously prepared with about two feet of half-spent tan in 

 the bottom : upon that about eighteen inches of the same compost as 

 that in w-hicli I potted the roots. I then turn the plants out of the pots, 

 and plant them a foot apart each way, and from four to six feet from the 

 glass, giving them a little water immediately, and closing the pit. At 

 the back of the pit my plants have generally attained the height of six 

 feet, and those in the front, for want of space upwards, have bent and 

 sometimes broken theh tops against the glass ; yet I never perceive the 

 roots any way inferior to those at the back. If these three things — 

 a rich, light compost, a high temperature, and an abundant supply of 

 water when the plants are in a growing state — be attended to, they will 

 insure a good crop of ginger. 



a Yery little ak is requisite, even in the hottest days of summer. By 

 the middle or end of September the ginger will be fit for taking up. I 

 then divide the roots with a knife, saving the largest races [roots or 

 tubers] for preserving. The small ones, "svith their tops as little damaged 

 as possible, I pot, ^md set into the pit again, giving them a little water 

 to settle the soil at their roots. They will only require twice watering 

 after this, until their tops or stems are dead, which will be about the end 

 of October. The pots must be set into some dry shed, where the frost can- 

 not reach them. They will require no farther care until the follovring 

 March, when they must be again brought out, and treated as above 

 directed. When pits cannot be spared, dig a hole in the open garden, 



