AUGUST — THIRD WEEK. 



three weeks or a month, that the effluvium from white 

 lead, which is prejudicial to plants, may pass off before 

 the lights are put on again. 



STOVE AND ORCHID-HOUSE. 



Shift into pots a size larger any small plants, or indeed 

 any plants that you are desirous to grow fast, or to make 

 specimen plants, as soon as they have filled their pots 

 with roots. 



Cuttings inserted in pots of light, sandy soil, well 

 drained at the bottom, will readily strike when plunged 

 in the tan-bed, where there is a little bottom heat, and 

 covered with bell-glasses, that will allow of the edge being 

 pressed into the soil inside the pot. 



Henceforward a certain degree of care and consider- 

 ation will be necessary to have the summer growth of 

 plants generally — and especially that of all those whose 

 period of excitement is continued over a certain portion 

 of the autumn — so arranged and circumstanced as to 

 secure its perfect maturity, or, in gardening terms, to 

 have it " well ripened." For that purpose it is necessary 

 to avoid the application of moisture beyond what is 

 necessary to prevent a decided check in the growth of 

 the plants, to expose them to the influence of light, by 

 not suffering them to crowd or overhang each other, and 

 to prevent from what cause soever the too sudden declen- 

 sion of the average temperature to which they are exposed. 



The Orchidaceous Plants that are growing to have 

 plenty of moisture and heat, it will be easily seen when 

 their growth is completed, and then it is proper to let 

 them go to rest by gradually lessening the supply of 

 water, and removing them to a cooler part of the house. 



Any Orchids that you are desirous of increasing may 

 be separated or potted into small pots, or fastened to 

 blocks, or placed in baskets. Fill pots with pieces of 

 turfy peat the size of Walnuts, and peg them altogether 

 until they form a cone above the pot. On the summit place 

 your plant, which is, in fact, a piece cut off another plant, 

 and with four pegs or wires make it fast. Let the roots 

 go where they please in the pot, or outside it. Orchids 

 depend more for sustenance upon the atmosphere and 

 moisture, than upon the soil. 



