180 
ON THE INFLUENCE OP CLIMATE ON PLANTS. 
I 
scorn. And yet, strange to "say, tliat very gardener or cultivator is continually 
practising certain systems in the management of various kinds of plants which are 
as decidedly injurious to those plant as frost would be, although not to the same 
extent ! 
It is somewhat extraordinary that a perseverance in indiscriminate treatment 
should render it necessary so strenuously to decry a system which is admitted by 
all intelligent cultivators to be injurious and absurd ; but this is a task which hor- 
ticultural writers continually have to encounter, and certainly it argues rather 
unfavourably for the docility and shrewdness of our practical brethren. The cause 
of this, however, is twofold ; in the first place, plant-cultivators study too much 
their own convenience, frequently to the prejudice of the plants beneath their care ; 
and, secondly, it appears to be a prevailing (but certainly a most erroneous) notion, 
amongst them, particularly with those who possess greenhouses of limited size, 
that the greater variety of plants they can collect together, the more pleasing and 
ornamental will be the efi"ect produced. By cultivators studying too much their own 
convenience, we mean, that they will seldom take the trouble to adapt their treat- 
ment to the habits of each particular plant, and in fact, by cultivating a miscellaneous 
assemblage of plants of the most incongruous habits in one house, it is absolutely 
impossible to give to each the particular treatment it requires, however much 
the cultivator may be disposed to do so. It therefore follows, that, in a collection 
of greenhouse plants, however limited it may be, it is wiser and better to cultivate 
only such as assimilate to each other in habit in one house, and thereby to grow 
them to the highest state of perfection, than reduce to a general system of treat- 
ment, a mixed assemblage of the most contrary kinds, to the great injury of the 
whole collection, and very probably to the total destruction of many plants. 
That the species of Camellia require a house to themselves, and that such a 
house should be peculiarly situated, we have previously demonstrated ; and we 
now recommend that the Camellia-house should have a north-western or western 
aspect, in which case the plants would never be subjected to a greater degree of 
light than they are able to endure without injury. There are, however, many 
plants of similar habits for wliich such a situation would be admirably adapted, 
and amongst these Rhododendrons may particularly be mentioned, which of course 
might be^ admitted to a place in the Camellia-house. But where a situation 
so congenial to their habits cannot be secured, it is important that they should be 
shaded during the summer months ; and on no account whatever should they be 
removed to the open air, unless to a very shaded situation, as we have fully expe- 
rienced the ill effects which such treatment is calculated to produce. 
The next description of plants on which we propose offering a few remarks 
relative to the influence of light, is the highly fashionable and popular genus 
Pelargonium. It is almost unnecessary here to state, that the beautiful species 
and varieties of this genus require a great degree of solar light ; as every person 
must have witnessed the bad consequences resulting from the confinement of these 
plants in a sitting-room, or other situation, where light can be only partially 
