18 
WATER AND WATERING. 
rest necessary to the restoration of its powers; bearing in mind 
that in degree it must vary with the nature of the subject, some 
plants require to be completely dried, others only partially so, 
while another portion can hardly be said to cease growing 
altogether at any time: these distinctions experience must point 
to; there is no royal road to the acquirement of the cultural art, 
but long, unwearied, patient perseverance, assisted by acute ob¬ 
servation and correct deductions are all required, ere a man is 
fitted to be intrusted with the application of water to plants of 
anything more than mediocre value. Practical convenience in¬ 
duces the winter to be chosen as the most suitable and, in our 
climate, most natural period for thus resting the plants; and 
though it may not exactly agree with their native seasons, yet the 
force of repeated constraining will tell upon the most obstinate, 
and in a few years even imported plants may be had to sink into 
the desired dormancy as readily as those which have been ac¬ 
customed to the period through the entire course of their existence. 
In the present month the very depth of repose should prevail, to 
continue which must be the cultivator’s chief aim, till the return 
of increasing light and heat may again arouse his charge. Be¬ 
ware, then, of the water-pot; injury the most inconceivable may 
be inflicted by any excess; and better, much better, it is to err in 
giving too little than in giving too much moisture; the former 
may be repaired, the latter never. Among such plants as positively 
require it, give a thorough soaking, and then wait till they are 
again dry; one watering of this kind, though it occurs but once 
in several weeks, is better and safer than continual applications 
of small quantities. The mechanical power of water upon vege¬ 
tation, which we have next to consider, applies most forcibly to 
this part of the subject. Plants in pots, of which it is under¬ 
stood we have been most especially speaking, are, as regards 
their roots, very unfavorably situated; they are confined on 
all sides to a very limited quantity of earth, and unless the 
proper porosity of this is preserved, but little air or warmth 
can ever reach them, both of which are vitally essential; the 
mechanical action of water is by its presence, being a denser 
body, to exclude air, and thus if by repeated applications, 
we keep the soil or any part of it wet, it follows that air 
cannot penetrate therein; this is the usual condition of plants 
