240 
OPERATIONS FOR NOVEMBER. 
glass) in the warm months, and simply to shelter them from injurious frost when 
winter sheds its rigours over the face of the surrounding surface. 
Upon this principle, we would have every plant at present under artificial 
treatment in that inert condition that scarcely any heat or water, or other tendance, 
shall be needed ; and all that will be demanded of the culturist is to watch the 
changes in the weather, with the design of supplying a little fire if frost threatens 
to occur. As to the occupation of watering, it has now become almost a work of 
supererogation, and the less moisture is administered, the safer may all kinds of 
plants be conserved. In fact, it should only be resorted to in cases of actual 
withering, or where the plant is really suffering for want of it. 
There is a certain class of Orchidaceae, whose growth has, from any cause, been 
prolonged beyond the natural season, or which have not yet adapted themselves to 
the mutations of our climate, to which the foregoing directions do not apply. It 
is sometimes found necessary to keep these in a constantly warm atmosphere ; but 
at the same time, it is desirable that a comparatively low temperature be preserved, 
and humidity dispensed with to the greatest possible extent. 
It need hardly be added that forcing, also, is not included in any remarks on 
general management, since this is an operation completely foreign to the ordinary 
routine of culture. Where early-flowering bulbous plants or shrubs are wished 
for, they must be immediately placed in a rather moist heat. For all descriptions 
of forcing, nothing is more appropriate than a hotbed frame or bark bed ; because 
much heat is thus economized, and a slight but pleasant humidity is kept up around 
the plants. It is of advantage to them, too, to have their pots plunged in some 
fermenting matter, which excites them agreeably and gently, and is more congenial 
than fire-heat. With bulbs, such a provision is especially requisite ; and it is 
better to bury the upper part of them beneath the bark, that their surface may 
not be too much exposed to the aerial elements. 
Many amateurs who take a delight in growing a few showy Hyacinths or 
similar bulbs for their greenhouses or drawing-room windows in spring, must have 
been frequently disappointed by seeing some of their finest sorts producing sickly 
or abortive shoots, and have probably inquired in vain for the cause. When we 
inform such that it is principally owing to the inability of the plant to develop 
itself with a rapidity proportionate to the quantity of moisture it imbibes, on 
account of its upper surface being acted upon too immediately by the atmosphere 
and its constituents, the propriety of covering the bulb with some light material 
will be directly seen. That this is truly the fact, may be proved by the admirable 
success of nearly every bulb that is plunged in bark till its growth has properly 
commenced. And even with the bulbs grown in glasses, we should prefer starting 
them in old bark, and transferring them to the glasses when their shoots are two 
inches long, for precisely the same reasons. 
