Mar.] 



GllEEN-IIOUSE AND CONSERVATORY. 



1031 



of room, either for the purpose of attaining greater bulk, as is 

 the case when large specimens are desirable, or what is more 

 generally the case, as regards green-house plants, to give them 

 additional strength, in order to enable them to produce a 

 stronger bloom of flowers, as well as to keep them in general 

 good health ; then, having made the proper selection, they 

 should be carried to the potting shed, and, as it is presumed 

 that pots of dificrent sizes are likely to be wanted, as well as 

 that different sorts of mould be had in readiness, the operation 

 may be proceeded in. In the first place, the mould should be 

 dry, indeed it never can be too much so, at this season. In the 

 second, the pots should be properly drained, that is, by placing 

 one large piece of broken fragment of pot or oyster-shell over 

 the hole in the bottom of the pot, with its concave side under- 

 most; over this a handful of smaller pot-shreds should be 

 placed, according to the size of the pot, and over them a por- 

 tion of rough turfy matter, broken into small pieces, the more 

 fibrous the better. Formerly, when the practice of sifting the 

 mould for these purposes was in vogue, the larger pieces which 

 did not pass through the sieve in the process, v/ere made use of 

 for this purpose : but now, as that practice is justly exploded, 

 as being injurious in the extreme, pieces of turfy mafter are 

 kept on purpose for this use. In the third place, the sizes of 

 the pots should be chosen according to the size and natural 

 habits of the plant. The careless and indolent may find an 

 excuse in potting plants into too large pots, as it saves them 

 the trouble of repeating the operation so often ; but no part of 

 the cultivation of plants, of whatever sort they be, is so bad .is 

 this. Some, however, may meet this accusation by remarking, 

 that plants turned out of small pots into a conservatory border, 

 or into the borders of a flower garden, succeed perfectly well : 

 this we gi'ant readily; but the cases are widely different, and 

 those who have attempted to grow large and fine specimens of 

 exotics, by planting them in very large pots at once, have been 

 grievously mistaken in the result. Pots are graduated into 

 equal divisions or sizes, from the smallest, which are called 

 small thumbs, or thimble pots, about two inches diameter, to 

 the largest, which are denominated 07ies, or number ones, and 

 which are from fourteen inches diameter and upwards. V/hat 



