103^* 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[Mar, 



colour but the texture that should be attended to in the selec- 

 tion ; and that which retains just sufficient moisture, and no 

 more, is to be preferred. When the water passes through the 

 mould in the pots too rapidly, it may be considered too light, 

 and to correct this fault, loamy earth should be added in pro- 

 portion ; upon the other hand, when the water does not pass 

 through it, but remains long damp, and becomes sour at the 

 roots, it is then too strong, and sand should be added until it 

 be also corrected. Almost all plants will vegetate from seeds in 

 vegetable mould, and many will continue for a long time to 

 prosper in it afterwards, but by far the greater part like a soil 

 of greater consistency, and one formed of light loam and heath- 

 mould, with the addition of sand, may be considered the most 

 general. Some few plants prefer pure virgin loam unmixed, 

 provided it be light, and not approaching to clay; of this de- 

 scription we may instance that splendid, but much neglected, 

 genus Protea. In preparing mould for potting plants, as ob- 

 served above, it should never be sifted, for, by this unnecessary 

 operation, all the fibrous rooty matter, which is true vegetable 

 fibre, and the best food of plants, is rejected. Instead, there- 

 fore, of the sifting process, let the mould be chopped with a 

 sharp spado, and well broken with the back of it, and it is 

 then in fine condition for use. The vesjetable fibre contained 

 in such mould will supply an extra supply of food to the plants, 

 while it remains open and capable of admitting the roots to 

 ramble about without restraint ; and by rendering the mass less 

 solid, enables the superabundant moisture to pass freely through 

 it; whereas, if sifted, the better part of the mould is thus kept 

 back, and the whole mass soon becomes consolidated and in- 

 capable of admitting the water to pass through, which either 

 retains it till the whole mass becomes sodden and sour, or, if 

 perchance it be neglected in the watering, the ball becomes so 

 hard and impenetrable, that the succeeding waterings cannot act 

 upon it, and, as a consequence, the plant perishes at last for 

 want of that necessary element. While the process of sifting the 

 mould was obstinately persisted in, we recollect to have often 

 seen hundreds of heaths weekly lost from this cause alone, for 

 many consecutive weeks, in one of the first nurseries in the 

 world ; and, as a last remedy, we recollect having seen tliem 



