THE STOVE. 



25 



duced to practice have been found of little avail. If any thing 

 can be applied in a general way for this purpose, it appears to 

 be one of those gasses, which are destructive to animal life, 

 while, at the same time, it is not injurious to that of vege- 

 tables. 



Insects are probably, in all cases, the effects of bad manage- 

 ment, and the effects of disease more than the cause of it. 

 When plants are well cultivated, and kept in a growing state, 

 few insects appear to molest them ; but whenever they become 

 sickly, insects are sure to follow. 



SUMMER TREATMENT OF TROPICAL PLANTS. — 

 TEMPERATURE. 



Fire-heat cannot safely be dispensed with in most seasons 

 before the end of May, and should be regulated according to 

 the coldness or warmth of the weather. The temperature, 

 however, should begin to increase above that specified for 

 the winter season about the beginning of February, and should 

 be progressively increased as the plants begin to shoot out, 

 and as the sun gets higher in our horizon, from 60° to 65°, 

 it should be gradually increased to 70°, 75°, and by the end 

 of March, or the beginning of April, may stand by sun-heat 

 at 80°, and by fire-heat at or about 75 degrees, at the time of 

 doing up the fires for the last time at night. This additional 

 heat is necessary to be kept very steadily, for nothing is so 

 injurious to plants as sudden transitions from a high tem- 

 perature to a cold one, or the reverse. It is also necessary, 

 at the above periods, to increase the temperature as the plants 

 are then beginning to grow, and should be supplied with 

 every stimulus abundantly to enable them to make proper 

 shoots, for without the shoots are freely grown, they cannot 

 be expected to produce flower-buds nor handsome plants. It 

 is at the setting out of the season that this is to be eflfected, 

 and not afterwards. Not but that many plants will shoot out 

 a second time after being checked in their growth by want of 

 heat or other causes ; but let it be remembered that, with by 

 far the greater part of valuable plants, such wood is seldom 



♦e 



