BORONIA SERRULATA. 
271 
I have proved myself that it must not be neglected, neither is 
it necessary to lavish that care and attention on it usual to plants 
considered delicate. Many suppose that it requires a warm tem¬ 
perature throughout the winter months, that the temperature of 
a greenhouse is not sufficient, but when we take into considera¬ 
tion its native clime, whose summers are not excessively hot or 
winters intolerable, we may infer, independently of experience, 
that a warm part of the greenhouse is the most eligible situation 
during the almost inactive months of winter. Many plants are 
destroyed by what may J>e termed over-kindness, not satisfied 
with well doing, an attempt is made to push the growth of the 
plant to an extreme by subjecting it to heat, which, in my honest 
opinion, is highly prejudicial at any time; for although a plant 
seems perfectly at home in a sweet, moving, humid atmosphere, 
yet if good judgment be not exercised, it is brought eventually 
into a debilitated state, from which condition it rarely survives 
for any length of time, the fluid or life-blood of the plant becomes 
deteriorated, and the process of assimilation is but imperfectly 
carried out. I do not wish to deny that heat judiciously applied, 
and the plant very carefully inured to a lower temperature, will 
be under some circumstances of advantage. 
But to simplify my practice in a cultural point of view, I 
recommend those who feel disposed to grow this plant to 
purchase small healthy plants of those nurserymen who have 
obtained some notoriety in their culture. Select them early in the 
spring, and see that they are thoroughly established in the pots; 
these may be at once shifted into pots a size or two larger, this 
entirely depending on the strength of the plants. 
Endeavour to ascertain from where the most successful growers 
obtain their peat, having secured this, mix with it a good portion 
of sharp silver sand with a few small clean pebbles, charcoal, or 
potsherds broken small, blending the whole well together, re¬ 
ducing the roughest lumps, but not too fine; then, having put 
plenty of drainage into the bottom of the pot, with a few pieces 
of rough peat on the top, proceed to shift the plants, pressing 
the new soil as closely as possible in the pot; if the ball of the 
plants and the compost used be in that happy medium state, 
neither too wet or too dry, the application of water may be 
delayed for two or three days, when sufficient should be given, 
so as to nicely percolate through the whole mass. 
