GAllDENS UNDER GLASS. 
89 
As to soil, it should have a sandy loam, light- 
ened by the addition of decayed leaf mould, 
and enriched by the use of very rotten dung, 
both together forming about a third part of 
the whole bulk ; the pots must be well 
drained, because the tubers require to be at 
once planted in the pots in which they are to 
bloom ; a pot a foot in diameter will afford 
space enough for the pasturage of a very 
strong plant. As to watering, it must have 
moderate yet constant supplies while grow- 
ing : as soon as the flowering is past, and the 
leaves begin to turn yellow, this moderate 
supply must however be very much lessened, 
so that, when quite ripened, the tubers may 
be in a perfectly dry state, in which they 
should remain until the growing season re- 
turns. Frequently the tubers will commence 
growing in the late autumnal months ; in this 
case they must not be checked, but if they 
can be kept dormant until after the " shortest 
day," so much the better. 
The training of the branches is a matter of 
taste, or often perhaps rather of want of taste. 
Whatever form of trellis or mode of training 
is adopted, it must be provided or commenced 
with the first growth of the plant, for it is 
impossible to shift the branches from one 
trellis to another, after they have made some 
progress, without fearfully mutilating them. 
Some think a shield-like trellis, with a flat or 
gently -curved face, displays the flowers to the 
best advantage. For our own part, we pre- 
fer the general effect of columnar trellises ; i 
for although they do not admit of bringing so 
many blossoms into one view, yet, if properly 
managed, they may be seen to advantage from 
any point, while the former will bear scrutiny 
from one point only. 
These plants are propagated by cuttings or 
by seeds, and grow very freely under favour- 
able couditions. 
GARDENS UNDER GLASS. 
This is becoming fashionable, and will be- 
come general, for it is clear that the mere 
protection of glass, without artificial heat of 
any kind, will enable us to grow many hard- 
wooded plants hitherto confined to the green- 
house or warm pits ; and it is also obvious 
that hardy plants will be hastened in their 
bloom and preserved in their foliage by no 
greater protection than a well-built house with 
thick sheet-glass windows or sashes. There 
are a few rules to be observed in managing these 
gardens under glass, for this appears to be the 
proper name, where the only difference between 
the covered and the open portion of the gar- 
den is the glass which covers a p.irt. A few 
rules may suffice. First, for instance, all the 
plmts should be turned out in the bed or 
border, or the pot itself plunged, because frost 
cannot so well go down after roots as it can get 
through the sides of a pot ; next, the greatest 
possible care must be taken that the windows 
and doors shut close and admit no draught ; 
third, that the windows and doors be always 
shut at sun-set in winter time, so that the 
heat which has been absorbed all day shall be 
shut in all night : fourthly, that whenever 
the sun is warm, even in the depth of the 
winter, all the air that can be given should be 
given. It is impossible, indeed, to give a 
common greenhouse too much air in mild 
weather. If there are many top and bottom 
windows, open half of each, so that there is a 
thorough good air admitted. In dry weather 
especially, the house should be as open as pos- 
sible for the sake of drying it. There are 
many plants that will succeed better under 
glass than in the open air, although they are 
hardy enough to stand exposure. The Daphnes, 
Rhododendrons, Azaleas (Indian and Ameri- 
can), Andromedas, Camellias, many Heaths, 
Acacia, Arbutus procera, Deutziascabra, all the 
Liliums, most of the early bulbs ; but suppose 
it be planted out exactly the same as a bit of 
fancy garden out of doors, the plants under 
glass will be forwarder a good deal, so that 
this would create two distinct seasons if they 
were plant for plant alike. The hard-wooded 
Botany Bay plants will often stand a i'ew de- 
grees of frost, but under any circumstances, 
all the spring bulbs would be in bloom in Feb- 
ruary, instead of later ; and we might walk 
out of the drawing-room into the garden, under 
glass, without the least difficulty, and see but 
the thickness of the glass between us and 
the most cheerless froat and snow, with the 
flowers blooming at our feet. The principal 
attention required is to the soil with which 
the beds and borders are filled, and the man- 
ner in which the drainage is carried out. 
There ought to be a clear run of water es- 
tablished, or rather the means of forming one, — 
two or three ordinary drains, with di-ain pipes 
at the bottom, and stones or bushes to cover 
them six inches ; and these pipes should com- 
municate with an outlet capable of draining 
away any moisture that may filter into these 
pipes from the beds and paths, so that how- 
ever freely you may water the plants or satu- 
rate the beds they will be free of stagnant 
water. The soil should be loam from rotted 
turves one half, and good chopped peat earth 
the other half. That this may be well mixed, 
it ought to be placed in a heap and chopped 
down and thrown to another heap, and then 
chopped down again ; but however it be done, 
mixed it must be, and well. The plants should 
be placed in the soil the same as if it were 
the open garden, a box edging or a board 
