254 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ November, 
I may perhaps appear somewhat profuse as to the matter of watering, 
but I have long come to the conclusion that the judicious application of 
water in the necessary quantities to this, as well as to all other plants that 
have their roots confined within the limits of a pot, is of far greater im¬ 
portance than any other operation in their culture. I never cover the 
plant at all with a bell-glass, except during the time it is from home at an 
exhibition. It enjoys a moderately light situation, but cannot bear the sun ; 
in addition to a thin shade on the house, I cover the plant with thin tissue 
paper during sunshine. The temperature of the house wherein it is growm 
ranges in the spring months from 50° to 60° by night, with a rise of 10° by 
day; in summer from 65 Q to 70° by night with a rise of 10° by day. All 
the plants that have been strong enough to throw up blooms will form two 
crowns, which at the time of potting should be separated. 
Under the above treatment the plant appears to have a perfect im¬ 
munity from the injurious attacks of all insects ; not so, however, as regards 
the insects themselves, for woe be to the luckless woodlouse, beetle, or slug 
that happens to get within its trap-like appendages. In a strong plant the 
leaves formed early in the summer will get from 4 to 6 inches long, and in 
such I have seen slugs 4 inches long entrapped, and held until quite dead. 
The Gardens, Summerjield, Bowdon. T. Baines. 
EXHIBITING ALPINE AND HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 
*-E are pre-eminently great at exhibiting; our pot plants are far before 
those of other countries; specimens are to be seen at every show 
which are models not only as regards beauty, but as showing a 
remarkable development of plant from a very small space of 
confined earth, exposed to many vicissitudes ; yet in one respect 
we have made no progress whatever, and that is, in the pot-culture of alpine 
and herbaceous plants, for exhibition purposes. 
Prizes are frequently offered at our flower shows for these plants, and 
usually awarded, but the exposants rarely deserve a prize at all, for their 
plants are usually badly selected, badly grown, and such as never ought 
to appear on a stage at all. In almost every other class, the first thing 
the exhibitor does is to select appropriate kinds—distinct and beautiful, and 
then he makes some preparation beforehand for exhibiting them; but in 
the case of our hardy friends, anybody who happens to have a rough lot of 
hardy miscellaneous rubbish exhibits it, and thus it is that we have seen 
such beauties as the following exhibited during the past season—a common 
Thrift with the dead flow T er-stems hanging on it, and drooping gracefully 
over the green leaves ; a plant of Arabis albida out of flower ; the Pellitory- 
of-the-w T all, which has as little beauty in flower as out of it: not to speak 
of a host of worthless things not in themselves ugly, but far inferior to 
