37-2 
THE INDIAN AZALEA. 
cover each pot with a bell-glass, to keep off 
the air and draught till they are established. 
When these grow large enough to nearly 
touch one anothei - , let them be potted off 
singly in thumb-pots, and place them again in 
the greenhouse; here they may be established; 
but they will be fit to turn out into the frames, 
where they may undergo their shift from one 
sized pot fo another until they arrive at the 
blooming period. All this time they are not 
to be pruned nor checked, but left to grow as 
they may, for the purpose of showing their 
natural habit. All the flowers that are not 
better than those we possess already should 
be discarded at once, so as not to fertilize 
others with their secondary qualities. Save 
none but those with petals thick, smooth, and 
of fine texture on the surface, flowers round, 
slightly cupped, and no apparent indenture on 
the edge ; colour either new or good in either 
case the flower would be acceptable. 
MANAGEMENT OF AGED PLANTS. 
In pruning old plants there should always 
be some of the old wood that is most in the 
way cut out, and this should be done rather 
freely upwards, but remove nothing low down, 
if there is a shoot of green upon it ; by using 
the knife freely higher up the plant, good shoots 
will come from below, but if the stems be 
healthy and bare, let them be budded and 
grafted, and as a fancy thing, there may be 
several kinds budded or grafted on one stock. 
If there be a good upright stem that would 
do for a standard, cut away all the rest of the 
shoots from it up to the height you wish to 
have the stem, and retain all the branches you 
can to form, or towards forming, the head ; 
upon every one of these branches, or upon 
alternate ones, graft or bud some distinct 
variety, or any one variety of which you 
desire the tree to be thereafter composed ; or, 
if all the lower portions of a plant are ugly 
and bare, cut the plant down and graft or bud 
all the ends as well as putting a bud close to 
the bottom of every branch ; the buds and 
grafts will grow rapidly, and in one season 
there will be a completely renovated plant. 
If the variety be a favourite one the grafts 
may all be of the same ; but the old wood will 
not always break when cut down, so that 
grafting and budding is the only way to make 
sure. A good old plant, however, will often 
give one good stem for a standard, and that is 
the most desirable thing to make of it. 
PROPERTIES. 
1. The flower should be round, composed of 
five divisions, though only one petal; and the 
indentures, where they join, should be so small 
as not to materially interrupt the circle. 
2. The petal should be thick, and of course 
to be round the ends of the divided portions 
should be blunt, lap over each other, and be 
free from notch, serrature, or blemish. 
3. The flower should be large and slightly 
cupped ; the colour should be distinct, dense, 
and if a self, alike in all the petals, or rather 
the divisions. 
4. If variegated, the colours should be dis- 
tinct, and, if spotted, the spots should be so 
much darker than the other colour as to form 
a strong contrast. 
5. The leaf should be bright green ; the 
plant shrubby, the wood or stems strong, to 
stand without support, and short, to form a 
compact bush. 
The great faults of the present favourite 
varieties are flimsy, pointed flowers, weak 
stems, straggling plants, dingy foliage ; and, 
beautiful as they may look, they can be im- 
proved greatly in two years. The two years 
are up, and some very beautiful varieties fully 
realize this prediction. 
MONTHLY DIRECTIONS. 
January. — Now we have young seedlings 
in the greenhouse, and the general stock of 
older plants in cold frames, pits, or a house 
kept cool on purpose. The former, that is to 
say, young seedlings, not being so robust, must 
have air admitted very carefully, and, unless 
the weather be very mild, sparingly ; for cold 
winds (that would not affect older plants) 
would injure them. The plants in pits and 
frames must be well protected from frost 
by covering, but in mild weather may have 
the glasses entirely removed, and air should 
be given at all times when there is no frost. 
February. — Examine the roots by taking 
out some of the balls of earth, and if the fibres 
are matted round the side of the ball, give 
them larger pots, carefully filling the earth 
round the ball, and shaking it well down, and 
if necessary pressing it down with a bit of 
wood. You may safely increase the size two 
inches in diameter. Stir the surface of the 
soil in all those that do not require shifting. 
If the fibres of the seedlings in the house have 
reached the pots, give the plants a shift to one 
a size larger. Sow seed ; they now begin to 
require watering. 
March. — The buds are now swelling for 
bloom, and wherever plants are subject to 
stronger light on one side than the other, turn 
the plants daily that they may flower all round 
alike. If any are trained with their branches 
to show but one face 1 they must be examined, 
and any branches that are loose should be tied 
carefully into their places, because all plants 
are now growing, and the face can never be 
made good afterwards if it be not done while 
growing ; nothing makes a plant look worse 
than any tying that shows the backs of the 
