UHODANTHE MANGLESII. 
371 
they must not once be dry ; but keep them in 
a hot-bed. 
TREATMENT WHEN GROWING, TILL POTTED, 
When the seedlings have two pairs of leaves 
besides the seed leaf, they must be pricked 
out unless they happen to be sown thin 
enough to stand till potting time ; prick them 
out in any sized pots, but only round the edge, 
for the roots derive a good deal of benefit from 
working down the side of the pot. Let them 
be an inch, or an inch and a half apart round 
the outside, but put none in the middle. 
Let them be placed in the hot-bed again 
until they have recovered their moving 
and begun to grow again, when they must 
have air to keep them from drawing, and be 
regularly moistened with water ; kept in the 
frame, to be the same temperature as the soil 
and the plant, they will soon be large enough 
to put in their pots singly ; the soil should 
be the same all through their growth. They 
want no exciting material ; the addition of 
dung, or of any enriching compost, would 
induce' rapid growth and longer joints, which 
would greatly disparage the plant. Get sixty- 
sized pots with a lump of peat at the bottom 
for draining, or, in the absence of that, a 
thin crock over the hole, and an inch in thick- 
ness of small pieces ; when you pot the plants, 
first saturate the soil of the pots they are in 
with water, then half-fill all the pots with the 
soil we have already mentioned ; turn the ball 
of earth out of the pots they are in and break 
it — the plants are easily taken out of the soil 
without breaking their roots ; then one by 
one take the plants, hold them in the centre 
of the pots at the right depth with one hand, 
and fill up the soil round them with the 
other, gently pressing the compost round the 
side, so that the root may be fixed solidly, 
but not pressed. Regulate the surface, water 
them gently, and replace them in the hot-bed, 
giving them air as much as is consistent with 
keeping up the heat of the bed. We ought, 
perhaps, to observe, that although there are 
some few plants that will thrive with the 
same treatment, such is the delicacy of the 
Rhodanthe that it ought to have a hot-bed to 
itself until it attains as large a size as it can 
in the first small pot, when the plants are 
established and have recovered their vigour, 
which is always more or less afiected by their 
removal to their first pots. 
SHIFTING. 
When the roots have reached the sides of 
the first pots, the plants will require shifting, 
and they may be put into the size thirty-two 
at once, or be first transferred to the size 
forty-eight, to be again shifted. If they are 
put into the thirty-twos at once, there is the 
whole trouble of one shift saved, and the 
majority of growers would prefer that system ; 
we do not. When the pots are filled with 
roots, the plants receive a partial check, and 
this is always beneficial. It prevents rampant 
growth and promotes flowering. We there- 
fore recommend pots of the size forty-eight, 
and with two inches thickness of crocks ; put 
in enough of the soil to raise the ball of the 
other pot a proper height. Turn out the 
ball from its pot with the plant and drainage 
undisturbed. The best way to put the soil 
in the new pot is in the form of a cone, be- 
cause you can press the ball of earth down to 
its proper height, and then fill up round it ; 
but if the soil is put in flat, you cannot press 
it much, and therefore have to guess very 
exact, or you may have to lift out the ball 
again, and, in all probability, break it, which 
will derange the fibres and check the plant 
too much perhaps to recover. When you 
have placed the ball so that the surface is in 
its right position, fill in all round, using a 
small stick or the finger to press the soil down 
gently I'ound it, that the earth may be solid, 
but not pressed. Return the pots to the hot- 
bed and well water them ; keep them close 
for the first day, but afterwards give air 
rather freely ; and as the spring advances and 
the sun gets powerful, let them be shaded 
from the extreme heat. In the course of a 
few days they may be removed to the green- 
house, and kept near the glass. They must, 
however, be kept from thorough draft, and 
must only be allowed air in the heat of the 
day. The rule for shifting from the pots, 
size forty-eight, to the larger ones, size thirty- 
two, is the commencement of the matting 
of the roots round the sides of the pot. It is 
quite well that they begin this, but if left too 
long, the check becomes too great. The 
shifting of the plants into this last pot for 
blooming is much the same as the change 
from sixties to forty- eights, and in the last 
pots they are placed near the front glass, and 
allowed to flower. The habit of the plant is 
very beautiful. They require no stopping ; 
their natural growth is far more beautiful 
than any kind of restraint, and they will be 
covered with their rose-coloured stars all over. 
The petals of the flower are thin but horny, 
and if the stems are carefully dried, the 
flowers last a long time in their dry state. 
As a border plunt, the Rhodanthe is useless, 
but only because of its delicacy, for the more 
brilliant coluurs and the more gigantic size of 
the subjects in flower in the open garden 
throw it comiJetely into the shade ; but if 
you desire to grow it in beds, or borders, in a 
situation in which it will be seen, or for the 
purpose of seeding it, let the period of plant- 
ing be at the time of shitting fi om the forty- 
eight sized pots. Bed them out a foot apart 
BB 2 
