168 
OPERATIONS FOR AUGUST. 
winter of torpidity, without the usual outlay for fuel, and the too frequently con- 
current loss of their health and beauty. 
These observations include the orchidaceous house as well as the stove ; but, if 
umbrage has been regularly afforded throughout the last three months, it must be 
removed by slow stages, otherwise the appearance of the plants will be deteriorated. 
With those which have been permanently shaded, that is, over which the shading 
material has been retained both day and night, such precaution is particularly 
required. Although some culturists pursue the method just described for the pur- 
pose of saving trouble, it is greatly to be deprecated, since it tends to endue the 
plants with an unnatural degree of susceptibility, and their first subsequent expo- 
sure to the sun s rays inevitably causes the leaves to assume a yellow and sickly 
hue. If, again, the shading be only partially applied, and allowed to remain con- 
stantly on the house, it does not fulfil the end for which it was intended, and by 
intercepting the light during dull weather, or that part of the day at which the sun 
is mild and salutary, creates the same state of weakness as that previously men- 
tioned. Only, therefore, at those times when it is quite essential, should any 
plants be shaded. 
In the greenhouse, and also the open ground, all shrubby plants should, if need- 
ful, receive a check to their growth at the present time, by curtailing their supply 
of water. Where any disposition to a remarkable and continued luxuriance is 
apparent, this measure should be immediately commenced ; for it is solely at the 
present period that the cultivator can interfere with advantage, as, in the ensuing 
months, solar influence will be so much diminished, that no reduction in the amount 
of fluid nutriment would render maturation complete, or secure the plants from the 
danger attending their temporary subjection to casual frosts. 
Seeds of many annual plants being now ripe, may be collected according to the 
directions given in our last volume. On this subject some hints are also thrown out 
in page 134 of the July number, wherein it is attempted to be shown that those 
seeds are generally most prolific which are taken from plants yielding the greatest 
number of them. Cultivators will do well to scrutinize this suggestion, because, to 
the augmentation of the splendours of the flower-garden, it will, if correct, furnish an 
infallible guide. We leave it with an urgent recommendation to their notice at a 
time when the best possible opportunity is afforded for its examination. 
