THE BORONIA. 
149 
defect in this particular. The temperature 
and climate recommended is about inter- 
mediate between that of an ordinary stove 
and greenhouse; it may be called a sub- 
tropical climate, and it is of course intended 
that, in proportion to this degree of heat, a 
degree of moisture also is to be present, suffi- 
cient to render the heat agreeable to vegetable 
life : no dry arid state of the atmosphere, but 
a genial warmth and moisture. Such a cli- 
mate will be exciting ; this is just what is 
required. The young plants will pu?h out 
their shoots, but they must not be suffered to 
grow at random. As soon as the young shoots 
have grown an inch or two, the top of them 
must be nipped off : presently others, before 
latent, will now be excited, and these in their 
turn must be nipped. Thus is the foundation 
laid of a bushy habit of growth. If the 
])lants prosper and fill their pots with roots, 
they must be agviin shifted ; but this may 
usually be deferred until after they have been 
hardened and rested. After about six weeks 
of this excitement, the plants may be rested 
a little, by removing them to an ordinary 
greenhouse, where they must be set out of 
the way of draughts, but in other respects 
submitted to the ordinary conditions which 
there exist. They must never, however, get 
dry at the root, nor must the soil be over- 
watered. The lower temperature will arrest 
growth, and tend to harden that which has 
already taken place. Here they may remain 
till about the middle of June, when it is con- 
templated that their pots will be sufficiently 
filled with roots to admit of their being placed 
in pots somewhat larger. From the small 
forty-eights they may be transferred to large 
thirty-twos. They may then be again placed 
in a moist, rather close atmosphere, where 
the temperature ranges about the points 
already described : and here another growth 
will be excited, which may be prolonged for 
six or eight weeks, the plants then being 
hardened to stand during winter in the green- 
house. This second growth must, in like 
manner with the first, be nipped as soon as 
the shoots are a couple of inches long, and in 
this way close dwarf bushy plants of consi- 
derable size will be obtained in the course of 
a season. These plants would bloom well in 
a warm greenhouse the following spring. 
When still larger plants are required, it 
is only to continue the same processes of 
shifting, exciting, and resting ; taking care 
that there is no excess in either the one or 
the other. After the first season, however, 
it is as well to be content with one annual 
excitement in the spring, continuing the 
plants for the remainder of the year in a 
greenhouse, or in a greenhouse pit during 
summer. Very large plants of most of the 
Boronias are usually much less vigorous and 
healthy looking than younger ones, so that it 
is really preferable to raise a supply of yOung 
plants annually, and destroying those which 
have passed their prime condition. 
The secret of having dwarf, compact, bushy 
plants of these Boronias lies, as it does in the 
case of nearly every other subject, in the 
practice of continually nipping the young 
shoots as they make progress. It must not 
be delayed until there is something to cut 
away, but the point or heart is to be picked 
out with the thumb-nail as soon as the shoot 
has reached the length required. 
The proper soil for Boronias is sandy peat 
earth, turfy as a matter of course, for no other 
kind of sfiil should be used for valuable potted 
plants. This turf should be that of what is 
called light peat soil, and it must, either 
naturally or artificially, have a good proportion 
of sand intermixed with it. It should be used 
in as rough a state as the size of the pot em- 
ployed will admit, and on no account should 
ever be sifted, but merely broken to the 
requisite degree of fineness by the hand. 
Boronias are very impatient on the subject 
of watering. They will not bear neglect, for 
a thorough drying is highly dangerous, if it 
be not in all cases fatal to them. Neither do 
they do well under officious treatment in this 
respect, which is liable to expose them to the 
other evil of being over-watered ; the effect of 
this is to chill and sour the soil, which, under a 
continuation of excess, soon becomes soddened 
and unwholesome. There is an intermediate 
danger into which the cautious may be apt to 
fall. Impressed with the necessity of pre- 
venting their getting dry, and fully appre- 
ciating the evils of exce.-s, they may think to 
escape from the dilemma, by frequent yet 
limited applications. This, however, is a 
great evil, no less than the others. Under 
these circumstances the plants are certain 
soon to suffer from want, the lower soil be- 
coming perfectly dry, while the top appears 
in danger of becoming soddened. The only 
proper course is to water thoroughly, and 
attentively to see that such a watering is 
repeated neither too soon nor too late. 
One more word as to potting. Our own 
opinion is decidedly in favour of moderate 
sized pots for these plants. Shifting them 
into very large pots is often productive of 
evil, and is always fraught with danger, espe- 
cially in the hands of inexperienced culti- 
vators. 
