98 
THE HOME GARDEN. 
in which we put plants may be considered in the light of a 
sponge which shall absorb, retain, and give out the food 
the plant needs to facilitate its perfect development. The 
essentials, therefore, are a carbonaceous character, as car¬ 
bonaceous materials are sponges for the absorption of the 
nutritious gases, a loose and porous mechanical texture 
which will allow the water applied to percolate readily to 
the fibrous roots of the plants, and then to drain away 
quickly if it be in excess, and a due supply of those miner¬ 
als usually called salts, such as lime, potash, soda, etc., 
which in small but distinct amounts are all important to 
'the formation of healthy vegetable tissue.” 
The pots for house plants should not be too large. 
Those of contracted dimensions will insure more bloom, 
and make a stronger, more compact plant. A plant to be 
forced is always placed in what seems like a receptacle of 
insufficient size. The soil for potting should not be moist, 
but friable, and the pot washed inside and out, and well 
dried before using it. The placing of broken pieces of pot 
in the bottom for drainage is open to the objection of 
stopping up the hole, and it is recommended instead to 
open the hole, when it becomes clogged, with a knife or a 
sharp stick. 
A pot should never be filled to the edge with soil, as it 
is neater and more convenient, for watering and other pur¬ 
poses, to leave a space of about an inch. Care should also 
be taken not to pile the earth, after the fashion of some 
amateurs, around the neck of the plant, as this is injurious 
to most plants, and is never done by florists. 
One of the most popular house plants, next to the rose 
and the geranium, is the fuchsia, known in olden times, 
from its graceful, hanging blossoms, as “ lady’s eardrop.” 
It is quite hardy, not requiring much heat, and will even 
bear a little frost without injury, but, for its best condition 
of leaf and flower, a temperature of sixty degrees is neces- 
