440 
PITS AND FRAMES. 
forcing the numerous flowers, bulbs, and 
plants, required to keep up the beauty of the 
conservatory. American plants, such as Kal- 
miaa, Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and Androme- 
da?, the Deutzia Scabra, Siberian and Persian 
Lilacs, Ribes sanguinea and varieties, Daphnes, 
Azalea Indica, Cacti, Roses of all kinds, and 
many other plants, which it is desirable to 
obtain early in flower. Pinks, Stocks, double 
Wallflowers, and bulbs of every description, 
should be brought in and placed in the coolest 
part of the house ; a row of pots on the 
ground, wherever there is room, will take no 
harm till they begin to grow, when they must 
be placed nearer the light. All these things 
must be brought in a few at a time only, be- 
cause you will require a succession. We 
should begin with not more than a couple 
each, and when these have fairly started, and 
are beginning to open their buds, bring in 
another lot, and so on all through the winter. 
While they are growing they will require a 
good deal of water, which ought to be kept 
always in the house, that its temperature may 
be the same as the atmosphere, otherwise it 
may give a chill that would cramp or stunt 
the plant and flower too. If any of the stove 
plants require shifting, let them be shifted at 
once ; and, as a general rule, those plants 
which are making growth must be occa- 
sionally watered, and those which are not, 
must be kept pretty free from moisture, ex- 
cept just enough to keep them from flagging. 
The orchideous plants, whether in the stove, or 
a house of their own, must be subject to the 
same treatment ; if they are growing, they 
must be syringed, as usual ; if not, they may 
be merely kept from drying. The heat of the 
stove and orchideous house, in the centre, 
should not be less than 65° to 70° in the day, 
and 50° to 55° of a night. The plants in a 
temporary warm pit intended for the recep- 
tion of subjects belonging to the hot-house, 
must be subject to the same treatment, so also 
must plants for forcing ; and the heat ought to 
be the same, as nearly as it can be accomplished. 
THE GREEN-HOUSE, 
which, to most persons, is a sort of general 
receptacle during winter for all sorts of plants, 
should now have all its occupants in order ; 
and where there are Geraniums, Heaths, 
Epacrises, Camellias, Acacias, Azaleas, &c., 
which are not all of the same nature, contrive 
to give plenty of room. The want of 
this is the bane of a green-house collection ; 
where plants which require plenty of air are 
crowded, it is impossible to be healthy. The 
symptoms of suffering from being crowded, 
are the falling of the lower leaves, and the 
consequently bare branches, rendering the 
plant unsightly. The cause may be seen 
operating in plantations of hardy trees ; and 
yet people crowd things infinitely more sub- 
ject to the malady, and wonder why they are 
unhealthy, and bare at the bottom. It is 
simply the want of a better circulation of air 
among the plants at the lower part ; no matter 
how large the green-house may be, the effect 
is produced by their being too close together. 
Look at a Fir-tree standing by itself, and you 
find its lower branches handsome, and reach- 
ing to the ground. Observe a thick planta- 
tion, and you find no branches near the 
ground, but so many poles standing together 
without even the colour or form of a leaf 
more than one-third down from the top. 
This is a lesson which should not be lost 
sight of in placing plants of any kind too 
close together. If the Geraniums and other 
plants requiring most attention were placed 
together, it would save the cultivator much 
trouble, and especially in the watering, for 
different plants require a good deal of very 
different treatment in this one respect. Gene- 
rally there is danger in having any too wet ; 
but the moisture that a Geranium would sur- 
vive, would hurt a Camellia, and kill a 
Heath. Frequent waterings, and small ap- 
plications, are bad ; the wet never fairly goes 
through the soil ; the proper way is to give a 
good soaking when you do it at all, and not 
to repeat it until it is wanted. By giving 
small quantities, one portion of the ball of 
earth gets wetted, while the other part is 
never reached. Hyacinths require to be 
merely grown before the out-of-door ones, 
may be placed in the green-house. Pots of 
cuttings may be placed on spare shelves, or 
any where out of the way, though we prefer 
pits for them. The fires should be lighted in 
green-houses in the day-time, for the tem- 
perature should not be raised at night if it 
can be avoided ; sometimes, however, the 
change of weather renders it impossible to 
prevent it without danger of letting in the 
frost ; and we must do the best we can. In 
mild weather the green-house should be kept 
very open, that the plants may have as much 
benefit as possible from the free air. 
PITS AND FRAMES GENERALLY. 
These store-houses, as it were, of the gar- 
den, are receptacles for everything not included 
in the subjects for other places, and frequently 
comprise in their contents fit plants for all the 
others but the stove, for which they cannot in 
general be made proper ; but if the stove be 
crowded, and room cannot be made for tro- 
pical and other plants requiring heat, a pit 
must be made up for them. A common melon- 
frame can be made up for anything that re- 
quires over sixty degrees of heat, by merely 
applying dung, as if they were for Melons or 
