CULTIVATION AND ANALYSIS OF PLANTS. 
With very large plants that are too weighty to lift in the hands, by putting a thick 
bandage around their stems or trunks to keep the bark from being bruised, a rope can 
be attached with a loop or loops through which a stout stick can be slipped, when it can 
be lifted, and the ends of the stick be rested on something of sufficient height, and the 
pot or tub driven off. This process generally requires assistance; but if alone, and we can 
at all raise the plant, and the spirit moves us then and there to make the change, we fre¬ 
quently settle the matter by a few energetic blows with a hammer, which leaves us with a 
broken pot and our plant free for its new home. In repotting such, care should be used in 
straightening out the roots as far as possible in various directions, to prevent matting, sup¬ 
porting the plant during the operation, and sifting the soil in carefully and evenly. If the 
plant has matted its roots, it is sometimes best to cut off clean with a sharp knife the ball 
of earth and such rootlets as it may contain, about an inch or more from the bottom. If 
the ball is found very dry, it will be advisable to soak it in a pail of water until it becomes 
thoroughly saturated, when it should be laid aside for a few minutes to drain before being 
repotted. 
The plant thus removed, with its ball of earth, should be gently set down in its new 
receptacle; and, if found to stand too high or too low, earth must be removed or added, 
until the surface is within about an inch of the edge of the pot, and carefully pressed down 
around the plant to secure it in its place, in an erect position. It should then be watered 
and set back a little from the light, and again watered about the second or third day, 
or sooner if it begins to wilt, but sparingly at first. If the soil keeps moist after the first 
watering, the plant should have its leaves carefully damped two or three times each day, 
but on no account should water be put on the soil until it gets partially dry. This delay 
is to allow new roots a chance to start. If a plant is slow to start, it should be placed on 
a board, under which a hot brick, or a pan of boiling water, changed two or three times 
daily, has been set. Plants should be guarded against drying winds and the heat of the 
sun for a few days, until the roots shall have established themselves in their new quarters. 
After removal the foliage will generally fall, but only to be replaced by such as will 
be healthier and more pleasing to the eye. Sometimes our greatest expectations will 
provokingly disappoint us, but a true lover of flowers will not be discouraged thereby. 
Sometimes plants have to undergo the process of being potted backward, as it is called. 
This is when they are weak, diseased, or refuse to bloom when they have too much root- 
room. In this case the plant is removed as before, and the ball nicely and evenly trimmed 
and pressed into a smaller pot. 
When soil is exhausted, or becomes filled “with vermin, it many times benefits a plant 
to wash the earth entirely from the roots, which should be done gently so as not to injure 
the young and tender rootlets. 
We have frequently had admirable and unexpected success with hothouse plants in our 
ordinary living room, where there was no moisture except what evaporated from the 
earth in the pots, with an occasional pan of water set upon the stove in winter. One or 
more pans of water, according to the size of the collection, placed near the plants in a 
hot, dry room, will facilitate the growth; but ordinarily, damping the leaves and keeping 
them clean will prove sufficient; and this much at least should always be done. We men¬ 
tion this, as many think the raising of a plant from the hothouse an impossibility. 
