354 
■ PITS AND FRAMES. 
and airy house, if the weather prove cold and 
wet. Keep them dry, even to a partial 
shrivelling of the shoots. 
Phils, and allied plants, should still be care- 
fully attended to, in weeding, watering, &c. 
Towards the end of the month, the strongest 
plants should be carefully potted up in rich 
compost, to be used as the first batch for 
forcing. Place them in a frame, and keep the 
frame close until they are established in the 
pots, and then give air freely. 
Heliotropes and similar plants should be 
shifted, if not in pots as large as wanted, and 
continually stopped and deprived of their 
flowers until they assume a neat bushy form. 
Bulbous Moots should be kept dry if they 
have lost their leaves, which will be the case 
with nearly all, unless they have been stimu- 
lated to a second growth by an undue supply 
of moisture. 
Amaryllis, in most of its splendid varieties, 
should, in particular, be now thoroughly dry, 
and it matters little, if in that state, whether 
those which completely lose their leaves, as 
Johnsoni, and vittata, and their numberless 
seedlings, be retained in their pots or turned 
out, and exposed on a dry shelf in the stove, 
or other house, until they show their flower- 
stem, or exhibit other signs of growth. 
Pelargoniums, before shifted and placed in 
pits, should haVe another shift or two in the 
course of the month, and should be also con- 
tinually stopped, so as to form handsome 
plants. Cuttings should aho be still put in, 
and any well rooted ones should be potted off, 
and submitted to the same treatment as the 
older ones, taking care to use a light sandy 
compost. 
Chinese Roses may still be propagated, if a 
sufficient stock has not been obtained. Shift 
such as require it, and continue to stop them, 
so as to obtain good bushy plants, that will be 
likely to produce a copious bloom. 
Other Roses for forcing, should receive no 
more water, after they show evident signs of 
being at rest, than is absolutely necessary to 
keep them from shrivelling. Laying the pots 
down on their sides in a shady place is a good 
plan, as it will keep them in a state of rest, 
and will also prevent them from being drenched 
by heavy rains, which would very likely start 
them into a second growth. All other hard- 
wooded plants intended for the same purpose 
should be treated in a similar way, especially 
those intended for the earliest forcing ; more 
especially if the same plants are forced at the 
same season, year after year, as previously re- 
commended. 
Violets, Lily of the Valley, and many plants 
of analogous growth, may now be potted up, 
and placed under shady walls, or in frames, to 
prepare them for forcing ; take care to pro- 
tect them from heavy rains, so that the mould 
in the pots does not become soddened. 
After-treatment. — This is very similar to 
that before recommended. Keep every thing 
clear of weeds, and be very guarded in water- 
ing anything which appears approaching a 
state of rest ; as if a plant be started into growth 
at this season, there is little chance of its being 
useful for forcing. 
PITS AND FRAMES. 
Plants intended for forcing into flower dur- 
ing the winter, as well as green-house plants of 
the more delicate kinds, may still occupy these 
structures to advantage. Such plants indeed 
require to have as perfect ventilation as pos- 
sible, while at the same time they should have 
protection from heavy rains, and very power- 
ful sunshine : these conditions are more readily 
supplied in pits than in larger structures, or 
indeed by any other means. 
Half-hardy Plants. — It is desirable,some- 
time this month, to turn attention to the propa- 
gation of a supply of bedding plants for next year. 
Cuttings should be taken off the short-leafy 
shoots — such as are not showing bloom, — and 
planted in pots of light sandy soil ; the pots 
being placed in mild hotbed frames, the cut- 
tings sprinkled daily, and the frames shaded 
during sunshine. The frames should be kept 
nearly but not entirely closed; the lights may 
be propped up at back, a couple of inches or so 
at night, and during the day they must be 
either closed, or left a little open, according as 
there may be heat in the bed, or otherwise, or 
the weather may be sunny or obscure. When 
there is much heat in the bed, so as to give 
rise to any steam, it will not be proper to con- 
fine it ; on the other hand, if they are left open 
in arid weather, the interior sometimes dries 
up too rapidly, to the injury of the cuttings. 
What is wanted is, to keep the atmosphere 
about them in an equable, mild, and moder- 
ately moist state — neither excessively hot nor 
becoming very cool — neither with much con- 
fined moisture, nor at all arid. There are at 
least two distinct general systems of keeping 
this class of plants through the winter : one 
is, to root the cuttings either in beds, boxes, 
or pots, and to get them transferred separately 
into very small pots to stand the winter ; the 
other is to plant the cuttings evenly and some- 
what closely in shallow pots of larger con- 
venient size, in which they are allowed to 
stand through the winter, and are separated 
in the spring ; sometimes before planting out 
time, and at other times, they are kept in 
these pots till they can be put out in the beds. 
Both these plans have their followers, and their 
advantages : the former, undoubtedly, may be 
made to secure the best plants, but they take 
up more space, and require rather minute atten- 
