158 
TREATMENT OF A FEW ORNAMENTAL PLANTS. 
To facilitate the drying winter process, the plant is kept in a large open wooden 
basket, composed of hazel or oak billets, filled with sphagnum and heath-soil, and 
suspended from the roof of the orchidaceous-house. Thus, while it can be at once 
dried by withholding direct supplies of water from the roots, the leaves will imbibe 
the moisture always floating most freely in the higher stratum of the atmosphere, 
and preserve the plant from withering. 
What we most w^ish to impress on cultivators, however, is the impropriety of 
supporting the stems of this plant. When suffered to assume their natural position^ 
and become half pendent, as in the case of Messrs. RoUisson's specimen, they are 
relieved from that artificial and constrained condition in which they are usually 
seen, and gain all the enchantment for which they are so remarkable in their native 
habitats. The flowers, too, are better displayed. Probably many other species 
would be as greatly benefited by being released from the erect position to which 
they are reduced by the hand of art, and permitted to take a more drooping 
direction. They would certainly be more graceful. 
Of Lilium speciosum and its varieties, we have recently declared our belief, 
from several instances of which we are cognizant, that they grow too grossly and 
luxuriantly if planted in the border of a partially shaded house. As we find the 
plan likely to prevail, and since it seems to be a common impression that they 
succeed best in a Camellia-house, or one which has a western aspect, we feel called 
upon to re-affirm what we have before stated, and show how these plants are spoiled 
by shade. 
Planted in a border which is inevitably twelve or fourteen feet from the glass, 
and more or less screened from the sun's rays by the surrounding Camellias ; from 
the moment they appear above the ground to the period of their flowering, there is 
an unnatural effort maintained to reach the top of the house. Hence, by the month 
of July, the stems are considerably higher than the tallest person, and, wanting 
proportionate strength and foliage, this is a very displeasing characteristic in Lilies. 
The flowers, then, when they are developed, lack colour in the more richly mottled 
varieties, and are too remote from each other and from the spectator in all. 
Turning to the converse case, if the plants are confined to pots, and retained in 
a house with a southerly aspect, they can be placed close to the glass throughout 
their entire growth, and perfection in height, in the arrangement, number, size, and 
colouring of the flowers, will be readily attained. The height, under such congenial 
treatment, will be from two feet to two feet six inches ; the flowers will be from 
ten to twelve in a group on a single stem ; the hues most gorgeous ; and the whole 
a model of health and beauty. Should it be thought that our opinions on the 
subject are merely supposititious, we must distinctly say, that having often observed 
plants in both the states and circumstances noted, our description of them is quite 
accurate. 
When proximity to the glass occasions excessive evaporation from the soil in 
which the species are grown, it is useful to spread over the top of the earth a layer 
