240 
OPERATIONS FOR NOVEMBER. 
of an artificial temperature, or the trifling and temporary admission of air. Every 
application of fire-heat, except in cases of forcing, or to newly imported and very young 
stove or orchidaceous plants, must be regarded not merely as a useless superfluity, 
but as decidedly detrimental. Ventilation will of course be employed only when 
the temperature is unusually and unduly elevated. In the greenhouse, particularly, 
it should be adopted whenever practicable, but always with this restriction — that 
the outward air be perfectly dry. 
This last observation leads us at once to the most important item in the winter 
culture of exotics. A moderate degree of aridity, both of atmosphere and soil, is the 
grand desideratum throughout this trying season. To be able to preserve this at its 
proper standard, is a matter with which no cultivator should be unacquainted. As a 
first step, and one upon which the whole system mainly depends, it is of the highest 
moment that the plants themselves should be brought early to a fitting state of 
dryness. To secure this, let them be watered with the utmost care, and with the 
view only of keeping them alive. This timeously attended to, their exhalations 
will be reduced, and thus neither the roots nor the air can ever be surcharged with 
moisture, for it is easy to prevent its ingress from the outside. 
If the course here suggested be considered an extreme one, or if if be supposed 
that we have carried our principle too far, let it not be forgotten that the bias 
is on the safe side. We never yet witnessed a plant that was killed, or even 
injured, by a slight drought in the winter ; while, that thousands yearly perish 
from a contrary cause must be known to all. Anxious, therefore, to insure our 
readers against this loss, we have been thus particular in stating an infallible 
remedy. Our strictures must, however, be read in close connexion with the other 
portions of the system which we have for some time been attempting to establish, 
and by no means acted upon to the full extent, unless the summer management 
has been such as we have previously advocated. 
In the greenhouse, stove, and every other structure in which climbing plants 
are trained to the pillars or roof, or in any position where they obstruct the light, and 
shade the more humble species, an immediate pruning should be efiected, and the 
shoots that are left, either fastened in their proper place, or brought together in as 
small a compass as possible. With the hard- wooded kinds that are spread out 
beneath the glass, the latter of these modes is preferable, as the branches can be 
released, and disposed in the desired manner, before they again begin to grow. But 
the more succulent species, and such as are placed beneath the rafters, or where 
they cannot intercept light, may be at once secured in the direction in which they 
are wished to extend themselves when the resuscitation of their developments 
commences. 
