232 
HABITS OF PLANTS— SEASON OF REPOSE. 
the silent months. Epiphyllum truncatum must be considered an exception, as that 
species and its varieties generally blossom at the commencement of winter. 
These succulent tribes have been usually consigned to the dry stove, a house 
wherein a temperature of at least 50° to 55° is kept up, and no evaporating 
material is ever permitted to be present. A dry atmosphere at a heat 10° lower, 
may be deemed perfectly safe. Most of the succulents will also prosper in a sunny 
room of the dwelling-house. 
3. The Stove-plants being natives of tropical climates are, doubtless, obedient 
to the original principles of their vital action ; hence the constitution and tempera- 
ment of plants, natives of opposite tropics, scarcely fail to be governed by different 
laws. Many tender plants, so far from being at rest, are now actually in full vigour, 
their foliage and blossom beautiful and perfect: take the Ixora coccinea as an 
example, with hundreds of the other finest evergreens. The heat of the plant stovo 
may be gradually reduced to 60° by fire-heat as its maximum ; and here we would 
recur to Mr. Meek's house at Nutfield, a double span facing nearly north and south, ' 
and which retained nearly perfect equability of temperature throughout the rigours 
and gloom of the last protracted winter. 
4. Plants not quite tender, but impatient of moisture. We take the Pelargo- 
niums as an example, but claim the undoubted right to assert that while such juicy 
species demand much air, a dry atmosphere of about 42°, and a great diminution of 
water, not one of them should ever become droughted so as to cause a laxity or 
flagging of the foliage. 
5. The Hard-ivooded and hair-rooted tribes. — Here again drought and an arid 
condition of soil cannot be permitted. Cold air and plenty of it, a dry house or 
pit — but absence of frost — these are the conditions. Heath-mould is the staple 
of their soil ; if that become heart-dry, who can temper it again ? A ball so parched 
repels the approach of water, and from that moment the plant deteriorates. 
To sum up the whole of the evidences which have been adduced, we observe in 
few words, that in the abstract there is no such thing as the safe induction of an 
artificial degree of repose, and Nature will point out the steps in which the gardener 
ought to follow. The health of each individual is the sure index ; growth, con- 
strained growth, is ever attended with undue elongations and poverty of colour : 
that is not health. The tribes of Gesnerce may be made to grow all the winter ; 
but in nine cases of ten, they dry off and disappear. Such plants ought to be kept 
dry, their juices are locked up and at rest. But others — deciduous shrubs — are not 
internally silent, and should not be suffered to become dry. Wet ground in the 
open garden never injures any shrub whose tissue can sustain an ordinary frost ; 
why then should we act in opposition to the laws of Nature ? It is our office and 
duty to protect, not to reduce our artificial treatment to an absurdity. 
