GREEN-HOUSE. 
295 
fail of being set at all. A pit, that is to say, 
a brick building four feet high behind, and 
two leet high in front, and six or eight feet 
from back to front, might be made into any* 
thing, from the mere protection of half-hardy 
plants, to the fruiting of pines and grapes, and 
the growth of orchideous plants, melons, or 
stove plants in general. Let the ground be 
sunk inside, so that there will be room for 
four feet thickness of tan, and room between 
the tan and the glass for what is required to 
grow there, and you may do almost anything 
that requires heat. However, modes of heating 
pits and other buildings are so various, so 
cheap, and simple, that no one need be at a loss 
who can get a few yards of iron pipe and any- 
thing that will hold a few gallons of water to 
boil. In the mean time, those who have not 
got this must make shift with tan and dung, 
and fermenting leaves until they can do better. 
Dung placed outside frames and pits will give 
a gentle heat, and it may be kept up by fresh 
supplies of hot dung, and the removal of the 
cold, and this should be done in the heat of 
the day. 
THE GREEN-HOUSE. 
Many of the plants from this department 
are now removed out of doors. Orange and 
Lemon trees are on the lawn, where they 
must not be neglected. Watering' becomes 
one of the most necessary duties, because they 
are more exposed than when in the house, 
both to wind and sun. If they are fruiting 
too thickly, it is well to remove some of them 
from the parts where they are thickest, to 
equalize their bearing, strengthen the fruit 
left on, and to encourage the continuance of 
growth and bloom, which is of the most deli- 
cious fragrance. The pots, tubs, and boxes, 
in which they are growing, may be top- 
dressed with rotted sheep's dung, and the plants 
may, once in half-a-dozen times of watering, 
have liquid manure. Geraniums, that have 
done blooming, may be cut back almost to the 
middle stump, and all the cuttings be placed 
in the open ground, under a hand-glass. 
Those from which seed is being saved, and 
others not yet done blooming, may be placed 
in the conservatory, or in the open air. The 
cuttings of green-house plants, of every de- 
scription, may be now struck freely, either 
with a trifling bottom heat, or in the green- 
house ; but the former is the better. They 
must be placed in pots of light soil, with half 
an inch of sand at the top; the cuttings should 
just reach the other soil, but not be stuck in 
it; cover with a bell-glass, that will rest 
within the rim of the pot on the sand. This 
must be wiped dry every morning, and the 
sand must be kept moist. A vast many sub- 
jects will strike without this trouble. All 
kinds of Geraniums will root under a common 
hand-glass, in the open ground. The Gera- 
niums that have done blooming may be cut 
close in, and be turned out of doors in their 
pots, as they are, in any part of the garden ; 
or, if you want to grow them bushy, you 
must cut them into some little form. The 
cuttings may be prepared by dividing them 
into small pieces, the bottom cut close up to 
a leaf, or joint, and two eyes left above the 
soil, so that a piece with three joints, one at 
the bottom, and two above ground, will make 
an excellent plant, and whichever eye begins 
to grow best may be left on, and the other 
taken away. If the top one grows best, rub the 
bottom one off; if the bottom one grows best, 
cut the Geranium down to it. This, however, 
may be done when they are first potted after 
striking, and, in potting them, put the plant 
in low enough to bring the bottom leaf of the 
shoot close down to the soil. Therefore, if the 
top eye, or shoot, is the one saved, the stem 
must be sunk down to it. Any time in the 
month will do to take cuttings off to strike y 
indeed, a Geranium will strike any time of the 
year, and almost under any circumstances. 
The green-house itself has but little to do, and 
that little chiefly to protect the plants which 
have not yet flowered against sun and wet 
and wind. Plants which have done flower- 
ing may be shifted into pots a size larger, 
and when they have recovered from the check, 
may be placed in a sheltered situation out of 
doors. Cleanliness is more necessary than 
ever in the houses; and if the house be emptied 
of its plants altogether, a good forcible syring- 
ing all over the inside with a rose which will 
send the shower with force, so as to destroy ver- 
min of all kinds from the crevices, along the 
rafters, the inside of the glass, &c. will be of 
the greatest service, and the floor, if paved, 
should be washed, and swept out clean, to 
make all alike. If the floor be only soil,, 
scrape all the surface, and sweep all out clean. 
Let the shelves, and such parts as can be got 
at, be scrubbed, or brushed clean, with soap 
and water. If there are vines, this syringing 
cannot be done so well ;. but it may be done 
as much as is practicable. The vines in the 
green-house require (only it is at a different 
season perhaps, being earlier in growth) the 
same stopping and thinning of the fruit, the 
same care of the wood wanted for next year's 
bearing, &c. as those out of doors; by reduc- 
ing the grapes in number you increase them 
in size, and hasten them in ripening. Cut- 
tings of green-house plants, that have struck,, 
may be potted off in small-sized pots (sixties, 
or forty-eights), and kept in the house 
awhile to establish themselves, or in a frame, 
where the heat of the sun can be kept off 
awhile, and the glass be shut down for a few 
days. Something of a shade must be kept on 
