THE CONSERVATORY. 
393 
therefore, of these, and many other similar 
plants, should be taken off for increase, if 
with a root to be potted directly, and if with- 
out to be struck under a glass ; the old plants 
to have fresh top-dressing. 
Fuchsias are still blooming, but it is a 
very good time to take off their young growing 
shoots, or to cut in the plants, and put all the 
cuttings in for increase. They may be 
crowded into a pot of common earth, to 
endure the whole winter, if they are likely to 
be wanted to bed out, but nothing should be 
increased wantonly. It is an evil to be over- 
stocked, therefore all increase should be limited 
to the subjects you want, and the number you 
require of the subject. 
Seedlings of all kinds, when large enough, 
should be planted out into pots or pans, to 
give them room to grow, and eventually they 
may be potted into large sixty-sized pots, to 
grow until they fill the pots with roots, when 
they must have a size larger ; then seedlings 
that were potted out earlier, and have filled 
their pots with roots, must be shifted into 
pots, the size forty-eight to the cast, and 
placed on the shelves where they are least in 
the way, or they may be removed into pits. 
Camellias may be inarched still where 
there has been any excusable cause of delay, 
but they must be removed into a warmer 
house than the green-house, and care must be 
taken that both the stocks, and the intended 
plant to inarch, are healthy. Cuttings of 
single Camellias, to be used as stocks, may be 
taken off, and struck in sand, with a little 
bottom heat. People do say the cuttings need 
no longer be cut at an eye, for that the smooth 
wood will strike as well as a knot or joint. 
Struck cuttings of stocks should be potted off 
in single pots, and placed in a frame or pit, to 
be protected from heavy rains, and if neces- 
sary, from frost also. 
Geraniums, which have been headed in, 
and stood out of doors for a while, may, about 
the middle or towards the end of the month, 
be brought in, and placed on the green-house 
shelves ; from the time, however, that they 
are in there must be plenty of air given, and 
the house should be clean and dry. 
Green-house Plants in general, such as 
the Botany Bay plants, Hoveas, Acasias, and 
other miscellaneous subjects, must be all placed 
within their winter quarters, but they must 
not be crowded. Plants want room; not 
merely room to grow, but room for a very 
free circulation of air. Plants get drawn as 
much from crowding as from anything, and 
cannot be healthy when they have insufficient 
room. All kinds of plants that have been 
standing out of doors, require to be examined 
as to the state of their roots, their drainage, 
and the soil they are in. If their roots are 
matted, they must be shifted carefully into 
larger pots ; if the drainage is defective and 
the soil has become soddened, the greatest 
care will be required in remedying the defect, 
and it is often useless. The old drainage must 
be removed without injuring the fibres of the 
plant ; a clean new pot, somewhat larger than 
the old one, must be got, and as much of the 
ball carefully removed as can be done without 
injuring the root, in fact, without disturbing 
it, for it cannot be disturbed without suffering. 
With some fresh loam, dung, and peat, such as 
is usually taken for potting the description of 
plant in hand, (first filling up to somewhere 
near the height of the old crocks, with new and 
dry ones, and some of the fresh mould at the 
top of them,) place the plant in the new pot fully 
as high as it was in the old one ; fill well 
round the outside, pressing the soil down be- 
tween the edge of the pot and the ball of the 
plant. Those which are merely matted, only 
require shifting to a size larger pot, and more 
soil to fill up. These plants should all be 
placed in the winter quarters before the end 
of the month, as after the middle there is no 
dependence on the absence of frost one 
night over the other, and not one season in 
ten escapes the month quite through without 
frost enough to damage most of the inhabitants 
of the green-house. The same plants which 
many keep in the green-house will do just as 
well in pits, and some will do better. Camel- 
lias and Azalias do far better without the 
least degree of artificial heat, so that they are 
covered up enough to keep off frost ; and 
besides this, pits are used for the whole tribe 
of plants to bed out. For Calceolarias, Ver- 
benas, Petunias, Fuchsias, and the Alpines, 
pits are as useful as a green-house in all 
respects, but the plants for both green-house 
and pits are so nearly alike in their require- 
ments that the management of one would 
almost do for the other. Yet the green-house 
has the advantage for soft wooded plants, 
because a fire can be lighted to get rid of the 
damp which would hurt these, while it would 
not incommode some others. 
THE CONSERVATORY. 
Here we are losing some of our summer 
favourites, and are reduced to the supply 
which the autumnal flowers afford, aided by 
what can be obtained from the stove. A few 
orchideous plants, and some of the old favour- 
ite exotics, sprinkle the place here and there, 
but Annuals, Mimulus, a few of the creep- 
ers, and Roses and Dahlias, make up a fair 
show of flowers. The Datura or Brugmansia, 
in the several varieties, Sanguinia, Luteae, 
Suaveolens, and Knightii, are the most con- 
spicuous objects, and perfume the house 
almost to faintness. The only thing we can 
