40 
DIEFERENT METHODS OF TREATING PASSION-FLOWERS. 
slightly, if at all, conducive to the increase of florescence ? It is a worthy desire i 
to seek after the greatest excellence in the appearance of a plant ; and in many 'i 
instances this can only be acquired by bringing into the field the highest stimula- i 
tives to growth and vigour ; but it is evident that this is not a rule of universal I 
utility, and that a restriction of growth is more favourable to the preservation of 
the balance which ought to exist between the extension of shoots and the quantity ^ 
of blossom ; if, as we presume none will seek to gainsay, the summum honum \ 
of cultivation consists in the production of an amount of flower proportionate to 
the space occupied, without interfering with the health or diminishing the elegance 
of the plant. ^ 
A more circumscribed space for the roots is plainly the most proper appliance 
as a preventive of redundant growth ; and for this purpose, some cultivators have 
prepared confined places of from one to three or four feet square, and with about i 
a foot or eighteen inches in depth of good soil well drained, adjusting the space t 
according to the robust or slender character of the species to be grown. This, unques- \ 
tionably, confers a great advantage, and ought to be more generally adopted with 
climbers, and indeed in all promiscuously planted conservatory borders ; for when >1 
a stout and vigorous growing plant and a weak and delicate one fill proximate q 
stations, the strong roots of the former rob the latter of their due nourishment. |i 
These spaces, or pits, may easily be concealed so as not to be ofiensive to the eye, : 
by a thin layer of earth spread over the surface. Another advantage is experi- 
enced in these compartments in borders, when it is necessary to remove a plant 
and replace it by another. When — as will sometimes occur with the best 
culturist — a plant dies, or it becomes desirable for other reasons to remove it, or 
when the roots of an unhealthy one need examination, the operation cannot be H 
performed without more or less affecting those plants on either side, particularly il 
if this be necessary during summer. But if the roots be kept separate no sucli | 
evil can exist, and a plant may be removed with almost the same facility, and as I 
little risk, as if it were cultivated in a pot. 3 O 
The best material to construct the sides of these compartments is slate, botM 
because it occupies little space in the borders, and is also more easily and perfectl)® 
covered, so that the existence of it may not be suspected. J 
A further advantage will be gained in the case of stove species of Passijlora if 
a slight bottom heat can be communicated, by passing a tank or double gutter^ 
beneath the compartments ; and as the most usual way is to carry the shoots of 
climbers under the rafters of a house, this matter will be easily contrived by 
constructing a raised border all along the front of the house in place of a shelf, 
devoting the needful space to the roots of the climbers, and filling up the inter-^ 
vening room for the reception of plants in pots. The stiff edge which a naked 
slate front would present, may be taken off, and a liveliness imparted, by planting 
Lycopodiums beside it, and allowing them to hang over, and form a kind of coping 
to it. It must, however, be clearly understood that a dry bottom-heat, such as is 
