OPERATIONS FOR MAY. 
95 
promote the pi'oduction of a greater number of laterals, it may easily be preserved in a bushy and 
neat form, and will develop an increased quantity of its erect semi-globular heads of white 
flowers, with long, deep orange-coloured anthers rising above them. All Pimeleas require to be 
freely watered during the growing season, and to have the heads of flowers removed as soon as 
their beauty fades. 
Phyce'lla chlora'ca. a bulbous plant found growing on rocks near Saragura, in Mexico, by 
Mr. Hartweg. It has a flower-stem a yard high, and crowned with a cluster of gracefully 
drooping flowers, which are more interesting from the pleasing combination of colour, than for 
their magnitude. The principal part of the tube is crimson, having green tips, partially overspread 
with a bluish bloom, and beyond which the yellow anthers protrude. It requires warmth to grow 
it well. 
OPERATIONS FOR MAY. 
May is universally allowed to be one of the gayest months of the year. The rapidity witb 
which spring has unfolded her verdant garb, is only equalled by that with which, throughout the 
coming month, as she ripens into summer, she displays the varied tints of her flowery mantle. 
The culturist now begins to reap largely the fruits of his labour ; and the degree of energy he has 
exerted, and the care and skill which have marked his operations, will now be eff'ectually exposed. 
But it is not alone in the review of the past, or in the contemplation of the beauties of the present, 
that his mind must be occupied. The fading flowers, which daily aff*ord him a little occupation in 
removing, afford him at the same time a hint of the necessity of exertion to supply a succession, 
since those now only expanding will in a short time share the same fate. 
In order to prolong the season of a favourite flower, much may be done in many cases, and 
especially with respect to those species which have a natural tendency to develop their blossoms 
during the early part of summer, by pruning or stopping the growing shoots of a few specimens^ 
and thereby inducing them to form lateral shoots, which may flower at a more advanced period. 
A judicious regard must be observed in practising this to the peculiar habit and nature of the 
plant operated upon, as well as to the vigorous or weakly state in which it exists. The species to 
which alone these remarks can be referrible, are those which produce their inflorescence on the 
shoots of the current year. 
Beyond the advantage of a lengthened season of flowering, there is another benefit arising fi'om 
the practice, which has claims of equal importance upon our considei'ation. This is the addi- 
tional profusion with which the flowers are afterwards produced, each lateral being equally prolific, 
as the portion of the shoot removed would have been had it remained ; thus, in the place of 
one, there will be two or three or more flowers, or heads of flowers, according to the natural 
disposition of the species. 
A more compact habit is also promoted by shortening the growing shoots, and that, tooj 
without any material present loss of accumulating parts. And wherever the application of the 
principle may be necessary or desirable, it should always be performed early, so that the smallest 
possible amount of the growth already made may be destroyed. If the correction of a straggling 
growth, and the attainment of more symmetrical proportions, be the chief object aimed at, then 
it is not necessary that it should be confined to plants which flower on the young wood. 
But it will be useless, and, indeed, mischievous, to shorten the shoots promising flower, in the 
expectation of being rewarded for the delay, by an increased development of blossom at a later 
period, if the plants so treated be in the least stinted in the quantity of nutritious matter supplied 
to their roots. The additional number of growing points will require a proportionate increase of 
food to support them. If the space in which the roots are confined be so circumscribed as to 
cause them to become crowded, the plant should immediately be provided with a pot of more 
ample dimensions. This must never be neglected or delayed, or the growth will be puny and 
weak, and if flowers are produced, they will be more scanty and deficient in magnitude than those 
developed under more attentive management. 
