1876 .] 
THE CAENATION AND PICOTEE.-CHAPTER VIII. 
171 
scribe stimulating composts ; and I regard it as one of tlie best signs of the times 
that florists of the present day, though yet apt, in their eagerness to obtain 
larger or more highly coloured flowers (though it by no means follows they suc¬ 
ceed in their desire) to fall, like “ J. C.,” into the error of applying the “ nectar ” 
too freely, do generally understand and accept the axiom, long ago taught by the 
best physiologists, that sound, healthy life, whether in the animal or vegetable 
kingdom, is quite inconsistent with the habitual use of a highly stimulating diet. 
When ‘‘ J. C.” used only plain rotted turf, liberally mixed with charcoal, not 
a particle of manure, and only one dash of weak liquid manure, he was placing 
the plants in conditions enabling them to completely assimilate their food and 
perfectly develop every function of their existence, hence, robust health and a 
liberal supply of bloom; whilst when he “ grew them in what is termed a 
generous soil, and applied the nectar as freely as if they every day required a 
feast,” he gorged them to repletion, and utterly destroyed their power of assimi¬ 
lation ; hence, weakened life, crude sap, and inferior imperfect flowers. Cannot 
“ J. C.” read the lesson his own experience, as I read it, plainly teaches ? 
The important operation of layering should now have prompt attention. 
This should never be done until the layers are ripe, nor left until they are 
hard. As the bloom fades, harden the layers—which probably will have drawn 
somewhat, as the result of the necessary shading of the flowers—by full exposure 
to the sun, and as after layering water can only be applied through a fine-rosed 
pot, take care that the ball of earth is thoroughly moist before commencing work. 
The operation in itself is very simple, and very easily learnt by those who 
are so disposed. Take your seat astride a common form, place the pot before 
you, and remove the leaves which ensheathe each layer up to the third joint, 
counting from the top. This removal is generally easily effected with a slight 
horizontal rift, but where the layer is very succulent a pair of sharp scissors 
should be used. The plant being thus prepared, every dead leaf and about 1 in. 
of the old soil removed, and the place of the latter filled with the layering-soil, 
—a compost made-up of equal parts of turfy loam, leaf-mould, and well-washed 
sand, the whole passed through a fine'sieve—take the layer firmly between the 
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