81 
days, or thereabouts ; as a criterion, say from 
tlie 4tli to the 28th of April; you will find your 
middle pips expanded, or nearly so, and well 
adapted to be exhibited on the stage at this 
time ; but 1 do not pretend to be correct to 
two or three days. I adAuse you to be careful 
these two last months to protect them from 
snow, sleet, and hail storms. By this treat- 
ment you will find the leaves of your plants 
grow very thick and fleshy, and the grass of 
them will shine, and carry a fine healthy ap - 
pearance; the pips, Avhen they begin to expand, 
will be fine and brilliant in their colour. 
Sometimes the sun has been so powerful by 
ten or eleven o’clock, about the 23d of March, 
as to make it requisite to put the lights over 
them, and shade them a few hours with an 
old thin mat, which admits the glimmering rays 
to the glass, and warms and cherishes them 
very much without over heating them ; how- 
ever, so soon as an opportunity olfers, I would 
throw them open and expose them to the na- 
tural air again. As I have before said, they 
want attention now, if you have a desire to 
excel. I do not approve of having the plants 
flagged by the sun at this season: I never 
regarded a little trouble, five or six small lights 
are soon put on or taken off. 
