INDIAN AZALEAS. 
257 
of silver sand, and this thoroughly mixed, without breaking the 
peat too small, is the best compost that can be given them; young 
plants require a larger proportion of sand, and as much as one- 
half will be required for seedlings and recent cuttings. To begin 
with such plants as are usually purchased, say in sixty or forty- 
eight-sized pots, these should be repotted in February, the points 
of their shoots taken off, and the roots plunged,, into a moderate 
bottom heat, this will speedily induce them to break out into a 
strong growth, and will save nearly two seasons in getting them 
to a blooming size ; it will be necessary, in all probability, if the 
plants are doing well, to stop the new shoots twice between the 
time they are placed in heat and the middle of the following 
June, when they should be placed in a shaded position out of 
doors, where they will form another growth, and ripen the whole 
of the season’s accession in a fit manner to meet the winter. In 
October or earlier, according to the state of the weather, they 
should be taken into the house, and in the succeeding year re¬ 
ceive again exactly the same treatment, not allowing them to 
flower till the third season, when they should have reached a 
diameter of a couple of feet, and will begin to assume a regular 
form, to be determined according to the proprietor’s taste. In the 
spring, of this (the third) year, instead of being taken into heat 
to form new shoots, the plants should be continued in the green¬ 
house in a low and very steady temperature ; for the fluctuations 
between excessive heat and great cold often paralyse the system of 
such plants, and they consequently lose both flowers and foliage: 
a similar result may also be expected unless they are regularly 
attended with water, particularly at this season; they should be 
constantly but moderately moist, or the bloom-buds will inevitably 
prove abortive. When the flowers are expanded the plants should 
be kept in a dry cool atmosphere, shaded from sudden and power¬ 
ful sun-bursts; but as soon as it is over, and the new shoots 
begin to appear, they should be repotted, using rather large pots 
to increase the strength of the entire plant; a moderately elevated 
temperature of about 55° should be employed through the first 
growth, which will occupy till the middle of July, and being then 
nearly complete, the plant may be taken out of doors and stood 
under the shade of a north wall, where they are free of the drips 
from trees, and unless naturally shaded, provision should be 
