APRIL. 115 
shaded; and although air should be admitted whenever this can be 
done without cooling the temperature below 55° or 60°, yet this 
should be done very cautiously at all seasons, and especially during 
the prevalence of drying winds, so as to avoid draughts—for a current 
of cold drying air always to play upon a plant for a few hours 
when in free growth would sadly check its progress or probably ruin it. 
Hence, while air should be admitted freely on every favourable oppor¬ 
tunity, this must be done so as to avoid draughts or cause cold currents 
to pass through the plants ; during bright warm weather, however, 
sufficient ventilation must be given to prevent weakly growth, and the 
plants should be moistened overhead two or three times a day, and the 
atmosphere kept damp by frequently sprinkling the passages, &c. 
If the plants do well the first season, they will form nice little 
bushes, and will fill their pots with roots; but they must have frequent 
attention in the way of training their shoots, for if these are allowed to 
twine upon each other, neither the wood nor the foliage will be properly 
developed; and although training may prove a rather tedious part of 
the attention required to grow this plant properly, it must be attended 
to, and this is a formidable job enough; but when the young growths 
are not allowed to become entangled, it will not occupy much time if 
done, as it should be, at short intervals, adding extra stakes as may 
be required. I generally remove my young plants to the hardening 
greenhouse in August, placing them where they will not be exposed 
to through draughts of dry air, and by gradually reducing the moisture 
in the atmosphere, &c., the wood will ge^sufficiently ripened to stand the 
winter, and the plants will continue growing slowly until November, 
when they may be safely wintered in an ordinary greenhouse, but they 
must not be exposed to cold frosty winds, and drip should not be 
allowed to fall upon them; and as the plants, too, during the winter, 
will be in a comparatively inactive state, they must be carefully watered 
at the root, keeping them rather on the side of dryness than otherwise, 
but when water is applied enough should be given to moisten the whole 
of the ball. 
The treatment during the second season should be similar to what 
has been recommended for the first, repotting early in March, 
giving a rather liberal shift, restaking and training, placing them in 
an intermediate house, and attending to them throughout the season 
as recommended above; if very large specimens are desired, a third 
season’s growth will probably be necessary to produce them. When 
the plants have reached the desired size, if they are wanted for 
purposes of exhibition, it will be necessary to use means to secure 
having them in the greatest possible beauty at the proper time ; to be 
successful, you must not only be able to grow handsome specimens, but 
also to have them in full beauty on a given day. As a rule, I leave 
specimens of those which I intend for exhibition in the greenhouse until 
April, and then remove them to the intermediate house, earlier or later 
in the month, according to the state of the plants and the time when they 
may be required. But as to the time at which a plant can be brought 
into beauty, this can be easily learned by careful observation for a season 
or two—and by that means only—for a healthy plant, with its pot well 
