530 
THE MANAGEMENT OF GREENHOUSES. 
good gai'den soil, and perfecting seeds by which 
it may be continued from year to year. These 
seeds may be sown either in the open border, 
at different periods for a succession of bloom- 
ing plants, or the earlier plants may be reared 
in pots or boxes in a frame, and transplanted 
into the open ground in April or May. 
Whether it would survive the winter if sown 
in the autumn, as N.in.sigjiis does in dry warm 
situations, we have had no opportunity of 
knowing; but coming from the same country, 
California, the probability is that it would, 
and if so, a portion should be sown in this 
way for blooming early in the spring. 
Though an interesting, and when perfectly 
true, a pretty plant, it is by no means so or- 
namental or effective as N. instgnis, owing to 
the absence of distinctive colouring, whicli in 
the latter species, apart from its other beauties, 
renders it a particular and universal favourite. 
THE MANAGEMENT OF GREENHOUSES. 
One of the principal points to look after 
in the commencement of a greenhouse man- 
agement, is to provide near it a room or shed 
in which all the littering business, such as 
potting, cutting down, pruning, shifting, and 
other dirty work may be done. In this 
there should be a strong table, a bin with 
several partitions, in which particular com- 
posts should be separately kept ; these to be 
filled with — 
1. Peat rubbed through a very coarse sieve. 
2. Loam from rotted turfs. 
3. Potsherds, or broken flower pots of two 
or three sizes, kept separate. 
4. Leaf-mould, being leaves that have rot- 
ted into mould. 
5. Dung from a melon or cucumber-bed 
rotted to mould. 
6. Silver sand, or very clean river sand. 
7. Cow-dung rotted into mould. 
8. Turfy peat, merely chopped into small 
pieces, of say half-an-inch to an inch square 
or solid. 
9. Loam from the top spit of a pasture, 
without the turf. 
10. Horse droppings rotted into mould. 
But if there be not convenience for all this, 
or they cannot be got at, peat (No. 1), loam 
(No. 2), potsherds (No. 3), and dung (No. 5), 
are absolutely necessary, and could be made 
shift with. Then there should be trowels ; short 
blunt-ended sticks of different sizes, to poke 
down the soil round a plant when shifted from 
one sized pot to another ; scoops like a coal- 
scoop, to take up the different soils, and by which 
the pots may be measured as they are taken ; 
sticks of all lengths for supports to plants in 
pots ; flower pots of various sizes, from those 
caWedsixtieti to the largest, called ones. These 
sizes comprise wide-mouthed and uprights, 
between which there is very little difference 
in the quantity of mould they will contain, 
but one is formed with nearly straight sides, 
the other wide at the top and tapering at 
the bottom, and of course there is a dif-, 
ference in the diameter across the top ; 
there is also a different form, and a slight 
difference in the measure between one pottery 
and another. However, as the most general, 
and therefore the guide for any who propose 
to follow our directions, the measure of the 
various sizes may be thus estimated, especially 
necessary perhaps, because some writers say 
three-incii, or six-inch pots, instead of sixties 
or thirty-twos. The measure runs thus : — 
Wide. Deep. 
Thumb pots, sixty to the cast, are 2| in. 2^ 
Sixties, that is, sixty to the cast. . 3 3^ 
Forty-eights, forty-eight to the cast 4^ 5 
Thirty-twos, thirty-two to the cast . 6 6 
Twenty-fours, twenty-four to the cast 8 8 
Sixteens, sixteen to the cast . . 9^ 9 
Twelves, twelve to the cast . . .11 10 
Eights, eight to the cast . . . .12 11 
Sixes, six to the cast 13 12 
Fours, four to the cast . . . .15 13 
Twos, two to the cast 18 14 
Besides these, there should be a number of 
bell-glasses, of tiie sizes necessary for most of 
these pots, so that the edge of the glass should 
come half an inch within the edge ; pruning 
and budding knives, and pruning pincers, a 
very handy instrument, by which a lady may, 
without exerting much strength, snip off a 
branch as thick as her little finger ; bass 
matting in skeins or lengths should hang 
across nails all ready for use, for although t!:e 
bass gets harsh and dry, it only requires wet- 
ting when used to make it tough. Everything 
should be ready for use without delay, for 
nothing is worse than to be obliged to leave a 
job to procure anything that mny be wanting. 
Labels of wood or zinc of all proper sizes, and 
wooden ones, should be painted black, because 
when used they should be covered with white 
paint where the writing is to be placed, and a 
sharp-pointed stick will make a distinct mark 
through the white paint, showing the black 
underneath it ; the white paint cannot be 
laid on too thin at the time the writing is to 
be done. Wire trellises for climbing plants 
of such sizes and shapes as are best adapted for 
the several species, and boxes or pans about 
six inches deep for the purpose of sowing 
seeds in, will be found requisite. A small 
nest of drawers for the preservation of seeds, 
as well for the borders as the house, and 
