THE GREEN-HOUSE. 



53 



therefore should be placed near the glass and near 

 such glass as may be opened to admit air every mild 

 day in the year. They require also very regular 

 supplies of waier ; not much at a time ; but so fre- 

 quently that the earth may never get dry or the plant 

 droop. Many kinds of plants, if they have suffered 

 for want of water, may be recovered by an abundant 

 supply, and placing them under a bell-glass on a 

 little heat ; but if once the roots of heath are tho- 

 roughly dried, no art of the gardener will recover the 

 plant. This is the true reason why so many heaths 

 are destroyed when introduced as chamber plants, 

 and also by gardeners who are ignorant of their 

 nature. 



Heaths are propagated by cuttings, seeds, and a few 

 by layers. In propagating by cuttings, the tender 

 tops are taken at whatever season of the year they 

 begin to grow, which with most sorts is about the 

 month of June. Then take the extreme points of 

 the shoots, and with a sharp pen-knife cut off their 

 lower ends at right angles, placing the cutting on the 

 nail of the thumb, as in cutting the nib of a pen. 

 The cutting will be from three-quarters to an inch 

 long : strip off the leaves from the lower end to nearly 

 half the length of the cutting ; and, in order that this 

 may be done without injuring the shoot, use a sharp 

 pen-knife or a pair of small scissars, for the least 

 bruise or wound spoils the cutting. This done, dibble 

 the cuttings into pots filled with moistened white sand 

 from pits, or with any small sand from pits or rivers^ 



