238 
THE FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 
moist, and prevent the appearance of red spider. Use seven-inch 
pots for this shift, keeping rather close, and watering less freely for 
a few days after potting, while the roots are laying hold of the fresh 
soil, but use the syringe freely, sprinkling the plants overhead 
morning and evening. When established after this shift, give a 
liberal supply of water, and to do this will probably require more 
than the ordinary daily application, but this will greatly depend 
upon the state of the weather, etc., and manure water may be given 
frequently with advantage, particularly when the pots are rather 
full of roots. Never allow the plants to suffer through want of pot 
room, at least until they are in their flowering-pots, but shift into 
those as soon as it is requisite to afford space for the roots. 
The pots for the final shift should not be less than ten-inch ones, 
and, with liberal treatment, twelve-inch pots will not be too large. 
Maintain a moist atmosphere by frequent syringing, etc., and keep 
the plants close to the glass, affording them a thin screen for two or 
three hours during the forenoons of very bright days, but this should 
not be used except the days are very hot, and then only for a short 
time. 
Give a liberal supply of manure water when the pots get full of 
roots, and syringe frequently, so as to have the plants in vigorous 
health, and perfectly clean when they commenced flowering. Any 
airy, light, cool situation will suit them while they are in them, and 
all the attention they will then require will be to remove the seed- 
pods as they appear, leaving a few on the most esteemed varieties, 
to afford a supply of seeds, keeping them clear of decaying flowers, 
and giving a liberal supply of clear, weak, manure water. Plants 
for late flowering should be grown in a pit or frame, where they can 
be treated almost as if in the open air, merely using the lights to 
protect them from heavy storms, or to slightly screen them when 
newly potted. Persons, however, who cannot afford space in a 
frame or pot, will find the following treatment to produce first-rate 
specimens. Supposing the plants to be well-established in five- 
inch pots about the end of May, prepare a gentle hot-bed large 
enough to place them upon after shifting into the flowering-pots. 
Remove them to this, and inure them to the open air by sheltering 
them from the direct rays of the sun, etc., for a time, then shift 
into flowering-pots, and replace them in the open-air hot-bed, and 
if this is covered with old tan, sifted coal-ashes, or any material that 
will permit the pots to be plunged about half their depth, or more, 
according to the temperature of the bed, it will be of great service 
in preventing rapid evaporation, and affording a regular tempera- 
ture to the roots. If the pots are plunged, the roots will be apt to 
strike down into the bed, but this must be prevented by frequently 
turning the pots round ; so circumstanced, the plants will be found 
to grow very rapidly, producing short-jointed, robust shoots, and 
they will grow to any reasonable size in a comparatively short 
time. 
The bed should, of course, be put up in a sheltered corner, where 
they will not be liable to be blown about by wind, and it may be 
advisable to afford them the support of a stake. 
