392 
GREEN-HOUSE AND PITS. 
stems of all that are not wanted to seed should 
be cut down. The seed, when gathered, should 
be laid by in the pods, in some dry, airy place, 
to get thoroughly ripened and dried before 
you attempt to rub or thresh it out. 
Box and other Edgings should be trimmed, 
dressed, and mended ; and perhaps by the 
time glass borders of the fancy kind are made 
for our edgings, this trouble will be saved ; 
for nothing has been the cause of more dis- 
cussion, or so much labour, as the subject of 
edgings, and the edgings themselves, when 
adopted. Box is unquestionably the very best 
of all plant edgings ; it is cleaner, neater, and 
more effective than anything ; but it has its 
disadvantages. Slovenly gardeners sweep all 
its beauty away, clearing the gravel walks ; 
idle gardeners allow it to be the harbour of 
refuge for slugs, snails, and other vermin ; 
careless gardeners spoil it and make gaps, 
when digging the beds and borders ; but all 
this stands for nothing, while neat, and cleanly, 
and handy gardeners can be found, who 
preserve hundreds of yards of Box in all 
its natural beauty and elegance. There is 
rib substitute worthy of a favourable men- 
tion. Where there is a gap, fill it up ; trim 
it all over alike, and never be afraid of the 
shears. 
STOVE AND ORCHIDEOUS HOUSE. 
This may be called the feeding house ; or, 
if separate, the feeding house of the conserva- 
tory, and best rooms of the dwelling house. 
In this department plants are hastened into 
bloom all the cold months, and prepared by 
hasty or early growth after bloom for the 
next year's forcing. All the plants which 
have completed their growth for the season, 
should now be placed on short allowance, as 
regards both heat and moisture ; because, 
when they have completed their growth, they 
require rest. All kinds of bulbs may be ex- 
pected to begin swelling and growing, and in 
tolerably large collections many will be rising 
for bloom. Of the Amaryllis tribe, many 
will flower from this time onwards, and keep 
a constant supply of bloom from now till they 
have all flowered. As soon as they, or any of 
them, are seen to start, shift them carefully, 
without disturbing their balls of earth, into 
pots a size larger, with some rich compost, 
say sandy loam, peat, and decomposed dung, 
in equal quantities ; if the loam, however, be 
taken from under the surface, and be not the 
produce of the rotted turf we are always re- 
commending, let there be an equal part of 
leaf mould ; thus making the compost four 
equal parts instead of three. When thus 
shifted let them be watered, to settle the earth 
about their newly forming roots, and place 
them on, or in the tan, in preference to the 
shelf. The size of the flowers will be greatly 
increased by this timely assistance. All the 
bulbs which have not started, may be con- 
tinued without water, for they will best indi- 
cate their want of attention by starting into 
growth. Orchideous plants and other subjects 
that, have made their growth, require the same 
rest, that is, require to be kept dry, instead of 
being watered, and placed in the least exciting 
part of the house. Where we have been 
compelled to make the same stove do for pro- 
pagating, stove plant growing, and orchideous 
plant culture, we have always met their 
requirements by placing all that have done 
their work, on, or hanging to, a dry top shelf, 
at the cool end of the range, and in front, 
where the heat was still less than it is in the 
high part of the ridge. Here all subjects are 
easily got at, and nothing but slight flagging 
would induce us to water them. This period, 
too, requires that we should be constantly on 
the look out for those unbearable pests, the 
mealy bug, the scale, and red spider, and 
apply the usual and previously recommended 
remedies before they get a-head. As a general 
rule, whenever a stove plant, or any of the 
orchideas, start for new growth or run for 
bloom, encouragement should be given. Na- 
ture always makes the effort ; art should 
instantly assist. 
GREEN-HOUSE AND PITS. 
Calceolarias in pots should have their 
side-shoots or off-sets taken off, with the little 
roots attached, and be potted in large sixty- 
sized pots, in light good loam and dung, per- 
fectly rotted, and these in equal quantities. 
The old plant should afterwards be earthed 
up ; but as the present mode of showing 
encourages the size rather than the beauty of 
the plant, and the number rather than the 
size of the flowers, you must act according 
to the intention you have. If we had to 
advise florists, the public should never be 
indulged with size at the expense of consist- 
ency. The herbaceous Calceolaria, like the 
Polyanthus, the Auricula, and twenty other 
fancy flowers, could be spread so as to fill a 
peck pot, and for aught we know, a beer- 
cooler, ten feet over. They keep throwing 
out side-shoots from the root, which spread 
out until, by the mere process of parting, they 
would form scores of plants. How, therefore, 
people can show large patches of Calceolarias, 
formed of a score or more rooted plants, as 
single specimens, we know not. The proper 
way of showing them would be to take off ali 
side-shoots, and use them one-year old, the 
same as Pinks. But shrubby Calceolarias 
should, like Geraniums, have but one stem 
next the ground, and all their branches should 
be started fairly above. The side-shoots, 
