260 TREATISE ON THE CULTURE AND 



other infects : but the watering muft be repeated every after- 

 noon, during hot weather only. By this you will alfo fave a 

 great deal of labour in watering ; but fuch plants as require 

 much watering (hould be watered before you begin to fprinkle 

 the houfe. Before morning the plants will have imbibed all 

 the moifture, and the paths will be perfectly dry. 



When I lived at the Botanic Gardens, Chelfea, I obferved 

 in hard Winters, when we were obliged to keep ftrong fires 

 in the (loves night and day, that the plants which flood on 

 (helves in the dry (loves were fo fcorched up that the leaves 

 ufed to drop off, as from deciduous trees in Autumn, which 

 gave them a very difagreeable appearance. This induced me 

 to confider what could be done to prevent it ; when the fol- 

 lowing method occurred to me : about eight in the morning, 

 when the fun (hone out, and there was the appearance of a 

 fine day, I threw in water till it covered the floor, which was 

 of tile, from one to two inches deep, and kept the houfe (hut 

 the whole of the day, unlefs the thermometer rofe to about 

 eighty degrees, which feldom happens at that feafon of the 

 year ; in that cafe, I opened the door to admit a little air. 

 By the middle of the day, the water was entirely exhaled, and 

 the floor perfectly dry. This I ufed to repeat two or three 

 times a week, in funny weather : the plants in about a week's 

 time began to throw out their foliage, and in a fortnight or 

 three weeks thev were in full leaf. This fuccefs induced me 

 to take the fame method with the tan (loves and other houfes 

 in Summer, when troubled with infects ; and I had the fatis- 

 f act ion to find that it had the defired effect. 



Of 



