40 
DIFFERENT METHODS OF TREATING PASSION-FLOWERS. 
slightly, if at all, conducive to the increase of florescence ? It is a worthy desire 
to seek after the greatest excellence in the appearance of a plant ; and in many 
instances this can only be acquired by bringing into the field the highest stimula- 
tives to growth and vigour ; but it is evident that this is not a rule of universal 
utility, and that a restriction of growth is more favourable to the preservation of 
the balance which ought to exist between the extension of shoots and the quantity 
of blossom ; if, as we presume none will seek to gainsay, the summum bonum 
of cultivation consists in the production of an amount of flower proportionate to 
the space occupied, without interfering with the health or diminishing the elegance 
of the plant. 
A more circumscribed space for the roots is plainly the most proper appliance 
as a preventive of redundant growth ; and for this purpose, some cultivators have 
prepared confined places of from one to three or four feet square, and with about 
a foot or eighteen inches in depth of good soil well drained, adjusting the space 
according to the robust or slender character of the species to be grown. This, unques- 
tionably, confers a great advantage, and ought to be more generally adopted with 
climbers, and indeed in all promiscuously planted conservatory borders ; for when 
a stout and vigorous growing plant and a weak and delicate one fill proximate 
stations, the strong roots of the former rob the latter of their due nourishment. 
These spaces, or pits, may easily be concealed so as not to be offensive to the eye, 
by a thin layer of earth spread over the surface. Another advantage is experi- 
enced in these compartments in borders, when it is necessary to remove a plant 
and replace it by another. "When — as will sometimes occur with the best 
culturist — a plant dies, or it becomes desirable for other reasons to remove it, or 
when the roots of an unhealthy one need examination, the operation cannot be 
performed without more or less affecting those plants on either side, particularly 
if this be necessary during summer. But if the roots be kept separate no such 
evil can exist, and a plant may be removed with almost the same facility, and as 
little risk, as if it were cultivated in a pot. 
The best material to construct the sides of these compartments is slate, both 
because it occupies little space in the borders, and is also more easily and perfectly 
covered, so that the existence of it may not be suspected. 
A further advantage will be gained in the case of stove species of Passiflora if 
a slight bottom heat can be communicated, by passing a tank or double gutter 
beneath the compartments ; and as the most usual way is to carry the shoots of 
climbers under the rafters of a house, this matter will be easily contrived by 
constructing a raised border all along the front of the house in place of a shelf, 
devoting the needful space to the roots of the climbers, and filling up the inter- 
vening room for the reception of plants in pots. The stiff edge which a naked 
slate front would present, may be taken off, and a liveliness imparted, by planting 
Lycopodiums beside it, and allowing them to hang over, and form a kind of coping 
to it. It must, however, be clearly understood that a dry bottom-heat, such as is 
