253 
converting the oxide into salt, soluble in water, consequently, 
more readily absorbed into the plant. The plants are capable 
of secreting an acid, or that water is capable of abstracting one, 
cannot be doubted, as the alkaline waters, after some time 
standing would produce an acid effect on the tests. 
215 Plants, Growing in Sitting Rooms. It is an unquestion- 
able fact that some plants may be seen flourishing more abun- 
dantly in the window of a dwellinghouse, under the care of an 
uninitiated individual, than in many well-managed greenhouses; 
whilst under the charge of others, they only linger out a miser- 
able existence. This is frequently occasioned by the plants 
being kept standing in pans, into which the water is poured 
when the plant is supposed to require watering. As it is indis- 
pensable to have pans under the pots in rooms, smaller pans 
should be turned, upside down within them, upon which to 
place the plant. Whenever water is given, it should be gently 
poured on the top of the earth in the pot, and the precaution, 
here recommended, will prevent such water as may percolate 
through the soil from again reaching the pot in which the plant 
is growing. Plants in rooms are generally over watered. It 
is impossible to say how often Fuchias, Pelargoniums, &c., 
should be watered, or how much at a time should be given them, 
as the same plant would require more or less according to cir- 
cumstances ; that is, in regard to the temperature of the room ; 
and also the degree of activity with which it may happen to be 
growing. To all cultivators of window plants, we would say, 
it is by far safer to give too little water than too much, as the 
plants themselves will give notice when they are in want of 
water, by their leaves beginning to droop ; but the eflects of 
over watering is oftentimes not discovered till the health of the 
plant has been seriously affected. On this head, which is the 
most important of all others, in window gardening, it is justly 
said, in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, “The best, and only general 
rules that can be adopted are, in winter, keep plants not grow- 
ing fast, rather dry ; in spring, increase the quantity with their 
activity, and the sun’s power, keeping them in a mediun state of 
moisture; in summer, water daily; and in autumn, decrease 
with the length of the day, and the returning torpidity of the 
plants, until the dry state of tlie winter is again reached. 
All this resolves in the following: — Plants when growing fast 
2'27. AOCTABIOU. 
