168 
OPERATIONS FOR AUGUST. 
a free unlimited soil, should take care not to permit a too great exuberance, and to 
repot them by the end of the month. Were they suffered to remain later in the 
ground, it would be impossible again to compel their conformity to a more artificial 
culture without materially injuring them. The end of the change being merely to 
restore them to vigour, and not to impart a luxuriance equal to that they naturally 
attain, these restrictions are of the utmost importance. 
Where roses are to be budded, the operation ought to be performed about the 
latter part of this month. It is remarkable that the ancients, to whom this prac- 
tice was no mystery, are represented by Yirgil as inserting their buds on the joints 
of the stocks, from which a bud has been replaced, and not in the smooth part be- 
tween the nodes, as is the custom of our age. There cannot be a doubt that this 
method is worth reviving : at least, the chances of success from such a course seem 
to us to be increased. If the flow of fluids be naturally directed to the buds, the 
development of a foreign bud united to that point must be more rapid and less 
likely to fail than that of one placed where it will have to create a new centre of 
supply. Numbers of other plants besides roses can also be budded advantageously, 
as it is easy, by thus connecting allied species, to add much to the interest of even 
ordinary shrubs. 
Towards the middle of the month, when it is clearly obvious that all kinds of 
greenhouse and hothouse plants have nearly ripened their annual growth, it will be 
necessary to begin admitting air far more liberally than during the previous quarter 
of the year. We have frequently urged the summer confinement of plant-houses, 
and would now, with similar force, declare ourselves in favour of the most profuse 
supply of air from August till October. This will do more for saving fuel in the 
winter than any other means that could be adopted. It will give to the plants a 
considerable degree of hardihood ; dry up all superfluous moisture that may stag- 
nate in the pots ; and keep every specimen in that condition which, while it verges 
on dormancy, maintains the pleasing appearance of perfect activity. 
No regulations can be laid down which would apply to all orchidaceae ; but 
the most of them, like stove plants, are fast progressing to a state of torpidity. 
The heat of the orchidaceous house should consequently be diminished before Sep- 
tember opens ; the administration of water being likewise lessened, and shading 
only furnished on excessively hot or shining days. Young specimens and peculiar 
species do not fall beneath the foregoing remarks. These may be sometimes 
stimulated, and with the greatest prudence, while winter is most fiercely raging, 
"as well as throughout the entire year. Such specimens as are taken to the draw- 
ing-room for the purpose of conserving their flowers, must be there maintained in 
a close atmosphere, and not subjected to gusts of cold air, or even to any influence 
from without ; for it is of the highest moment that they be sustained by circum- 
stances approximating as nearly as convenient to those they have left. A moist 
atmosphere and great heat are not of course to be desired ; but the opposite 
extremes should be sedulously avoided. 
