KALMIA LATIFOLIA. 
301 
the surface very thinly indeed. "With a fine 
sieve shake enough peat earth over it to just 
cover the seed and no more. The earth 
must be a little moist, but it will be easiest 
moistened by standing the pot for a few- 
minutes in water three or four inches deep. 
Place a bell-glass over the seed. Let this 
pot be placed in the greenhouse, and near the 
light. If the surface become dry at all, water 
with a very fine syringe that will spread the 
liquid like dew and not disturb the seed ; or, 
if you have not this convenience, take a 
clothes-brush, dip it in Avater, turn the hairs 
upward, and, by drawing your hand along the 
hairs, the water will fly off in very minute 
drops, so as to completely saturate the soil 
without disturbing a grain of sand or a seed. 
In tlie course of time these seeds will come 
up, and from that time the hot sun must be 
shaded off by a piece of very thin transparent 
cloth or white paper, as the small plants will 
not bear the sun, and would perish. Take 
especial care now that the plants are occa- 
sionally refreshed with water ; indeed neglect 
for a very short time in this respect w^ould 
destroy them altogether. The glass may now 
be taken off, as the plants will require the 
ordinary air of the greenhouse. As soon as 
these seedling plants get large enough to 
handle at all, get other pots of soil, and after 
they have been settled down and levelled, 
prick out the young plants an inch apart all 
over the surface, beginning with them close 
to the edge of the pot so as to touch the side. 
"Water with the brush to settle the soil about 
their roots, and set them on a shelf in the 
greenhouse near the light, with a glass over 
them the first day or two, and keep the sun 
off by hanging a piece of thin cloth or a sheet 
of white paper. Here the plants will grow 
fast, and, when there is no danger of frost, 
they may be placed in a cold pit on the floor, 
and near the front wall, that the sun may be 
kept from them till they are strong and in 
good condition for planting out in the peat 
beds ; but this will not be until they pretty 
nearly touch each other in the seedling pot. 
They may then be planted out six inches 
apart, in the month of May, and well watered; 
bend some hoops across the bed, and throw 
a net over them to keep oflT birds and vermin 
that might scratch up the young plants, and 
also to be ready to throw mats over in case of 
violent rains, hail, &c. In a season or two 
they will be considerably grown, and require 
to be moved ; but they will come up with all 
their fibres undamaged ; they may then be 
planted out a foot apart every way; and after 
planting, which should be done while the 
plants are at rest, after making their season's 
growth, they should be covered against the 
sun and wind two or three days until they 
are fairly settled in the ground. Here they 
may go on two seasons more ; but they should 
be replanted from time to time as they grow 
larger, because there ought to be quite as 
much space between plant and plant as the 
plants themselves occupy. They want no 
other soil. 
MANAGEMENT OP PLANTS. 
The Kalmia, while growing, requires plenty 
of moisture, and especially from the time the 
buds begin to swell till it is in full flower ; for 
if it be once stintedthe foliage becomes dis- 
coloured, and the ends of the leaves look as if 
they were bui-ned ; and, when this is the case, 
the plant is spoiled. In fact the leaves never 
recover it, but retain the scorched appear- 
ance till they fall. Unless seed is required, 
cut off the trusses of pods as soon as the 
bloom decays, for the growth of the seed, 
though only like so much dust, detracts a 
good deal from the plant. When the trusses 
are cut off, which should be done only just 
below the bunches, the plant will rapidly 
make its next season's growth, and it must 
not be distressed for water : if the situation 
be not naturally shaded from the heat of the 
sun, it should be artificially shaded during 
the growth of the young wood. The growth 
once completed, no more attention is re- 
quired ; it is able to bear ordinary winter 
frosts, and, so long as the plant is kept in 
health, will maintain a beautiful habit, in- 
creasing in beauty and dimensions every year. 
But as they are, when once raised, wanted in 
the lawn and in the shrubbery, places must 
be prepared for their reception by digging 
two feet of soil out from a space sufficiently 
large, and filling it up with the same soil as 
the American beds, that is, the beds they 
came from. Contrive, if possible, that some 
of the larger objects shade them from the ex- 
treme heat of the sun, and when the plants 
are established well they will do as well in 
their new place as in their own beds ; but 
even here you must recollect that they require 
water when other things do not, and if they 
are at all stinted while they are making their 
grov/th they will not complete it healthily, 
and they will miss bloom. Therefore, as 
soon as the flowers fade, cut off the trusses 
and be liberal with the watering-pot until you 
see they have completed their growth. It is 
a common thing to see American plants bloom 
abundantly one season, and scantily, or not at 
all, the next. The cause of this is in the 
plant being distressed by seeding. If, after 
the most abundant flower, the trusses were 
nipped off, instead of being allowed to swell 
their pods, the growth would be immediate, 
and the bloom plentiful twenty years running. 
It is the same with rhododendrons, azaleas^ 
