PUllCHASING PLANTS. 



89 



Plants are often much injured, though raised suf- 

 ficiently hardy in other respects, hy being too much 

 crowded, whether in the seed-bed or in the nursery 

 line. When this is the case, many of them grow 

 very slowly. It is necessary, therefore, to be care- 

 fully on our guard against purchasing such as have 

 suffered from this cause. The surest method, that 

 1 know, of enabling those who have little experi- 

 ence, to ascertain whether plants in the seed-bed are 

 too much crowded or not, is to compare such as grow 

 on the verge of the alley with those in the interior. 

 If the girt or thickness of the latter be equal, or 

 nearly so, to that of the former, it may be taken for 

 granted that the plants have had sufficient room ; 

 but if there be a considerable disparity between 

 them in this respect, the opposite conclusion is the 

 true one. When plants of any kind are too close 

 upon one another, they are drawn up weak, that is, 

 with their stems too small in proportion to their 

 length, and this is occasioned by the air not being 

 admitted in due quantities. The plants, however, 

 near the edges of the beds cannot suffer on this ac- 

 count ; and, by comparing them with those which 

 grow in the middle of it, any person may easily 

 judge whether the latter have sustained injury from 

 the cause in question. When plants have stood 



