1G 
PITS AND FRAMES. 
Naixiss. — These require the same treat- 
ment as in the previous cases. Perhaps the 
best varieties for early forcing are, Bazelman 
Major, Juno, Monument, Goude Mundi, and 
Staats Generaal. 
Cacti. — A few plants of Epiphyllum spe- 
ciosum, E. Jenkinsonii, E. Ackermanni, and 
the related varieties, should now be placed in 
a warm situation, to bloom during March and 
April. Water should be very sparingly ad- 
ministered at first, but as they advance, they 
will require a more liberal supply. The soil 
they are in should be sufficiently porous to 
prevent the danger of water lodging about the 
roots, as that would prove very detrimental to 
the plants. 
Iris susiana. — These singular and beautiful 
plants, if potted in November, and kept 
till now in a cool frame, may be in- 
duced to bloom if taken to the forcing- 
house, and very gradually excited by placing 
them at the coolest end, and slowly increasing 
the heat; they will flower about the beginning 
of March, when they had better be taken to the 
green-house. This is one of the most extra- 
ordinary of flowers. The extremely beautiful 
and fragrant little Iris persica, may be potted 
in five-inch pots, and treated in the same way 
as the Hyacinth. 
Dog's - tooth Violet (Erythronium Dens 
canis) may be potted in five-inch pots, and 
gently forced into bloom. 
Crocuses. — A few pots of the various co- 
loured varieties of Crocus, if brought forward, 
are very ornamental, and will make a very 
pleasing and useful variety among the plants 
in bloom. 
Snowdrops. — These also may be done in 
the same way, and are very pretty. 
PITS AND FRAMES. 
It has been already remarked that well-con- 
structed pits, if kept secure against frost and 
damp, afford the very best situations for most 
green-house plants. When they are devoted 
to tins use, the treatment recommended under 
the head Green-house will be suitable. In 
general terms, the treatment may be summed 
up thus : — keep them cool and dry, and free 
from frost ; the two former conditions, how- 
ever, it must be remembered, are comparative, 
not absolute. 
Half-hardt Plants. — These are the bed- 
ding plants to which the flower-garden chiefly 
owes its gaiety in the summer months ; they 
are properly kept here, although sometimes 
when there is a spare shelf in the green-house 
near the glass it may be appropriated to those 
kinds which suffer most from damp. There 
is but little to do to these plants now, beyond 
their preservation from injury. Some will 
have been struck, or raised as seedlings, early 
in the autumn ; and these will be well estab- 
lished in single pots, or two or three together, 
as the case may be. Others, planted as cut- 
tings, or sown later, will be in what are termed 
store pots ; that is, larger pots, according to 
their size and the kind of plants, containing 
one or two dozen or more plants in each : 
these being crowded together rather closely in 
the pots, are liable to suffer from accumulated 
damp, and for this reason, care should be taken 
not to wet the leaves under any circumstances 
during the depth of winter, and to avoid their 
getting wetted by drip from the sashes, or any 
such means ; for the same reason, they ought 
frequently to be examined, and any of the dead 
or dying leaves carefully removed, and not 
allowed to lie and decay among the living 
plants : attention to this is of the very great- 
est importance to the well-being of the plants. 
The recommendation given above, to keep the 
plants comparatively dry and cool, and quite 
free from frost, is specially applicable in the 
case of these. Coolness of the atmosphere is 
absolutely necessary to keep the plants at rest — 
in order that they may not be stimulated to 
gwrw under circumstances so unfavourable as 
the weather of January always is ; this must be 
secured by admitting air early, late, night and 
day, and at all times when it can be done with- 
out violation of the other principle — viz. that 
of keeping them quite free from frost. Dry- 
ness of the air, and also of the soil and the 
plants, is to be secured partly by the manner 
of admitting air, that is, not admitting it in 
so large quantities when the external air is 
damp ; but it is chiefly to be secured by the 
mode and degree of applying water to the 
plants ; they should get but a very limited 
supply, just so much, and so often, according 
to the actual present state of the weather, as will 
prevent the soil from getting dry enough to cause 
the plants to wither ; rigid attention to this 
rule will be one of the best means of avoiding 
that damping off, or decay of the plants already 
referred to. A fire of charcoal in the day-time, 
with air, may sometimes be serviceable for 
this purpose. As regards keeping them free 
from frost, whenever it can be done without 
fire-heat (this is supposing the plants to be in 
such a structure as that shown at p. 4,) by 
no means use that ; add coverings of any 
kind, either on the top or at the sides, 
and except in very severe weather this 
will be sufficient. If recourse must be had to 
fire-heat, let it be as slight in degree as will 
effect the purpose. Coverings of a slight na- 
ture, if they are contrived so that they are 
clear of the frames, and extend all round, thus 
enclosing an intermediate body of air, will 
resist more cold than a much thicker covering, 
laid in close contact with the glass or the sides 
of the frame. 
