THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[December 20. 
186 
abundantly; for they take up, as in their native siliceous 
soils, a large supply, and retain it pertinaciously in 
defiance of the long-protracted droughts to which they 
are exposed. 
In the same species we have always found varieties 
transpire abundantly, and require a larger supply of 
water in proportion to the extent of their transpiring 
surface. Thus the broad-leaved fuchsias and pelar¬ 
goniums transpire from two to three times as much as 
those varieties which have smaller and less abundant 
foliage. 
The want of a few suggestions for the cultivation of 
plants in room3 has been so often brought to our notice 
that the subject may be here glanced over, especially as 
it will afford the opportunity for a few remarks upon 
potting generally. 
Plants growing in pots, placed in our dwelling-houses, 
may be as successfully cultivated as other plants placed 
in greenhouses. It is quite true that they very rarely 
are so cultivated; but this does not prove that such j 
success is impossible—it demonstrates no more than 
that either the cultivation is more difficult, or is less , 
judiciously attended to, or that both these sources of j 
failure attend upon our room plants; and that they do I 
suffer from both, is the actual truth. 
As the plants are placed in or near windows, there is 
no injurious deficiency of light, but as it comes to them 
most intensely on one side, they should be half turned 
round every day, that their heads may have a uniform 
appearance, and the leaves be not turned only in one 
direction. If the window faces the south, the intense 
heat and light should be mitigated during the middays 
of the summer months by lowering the blind. 
Whenever the outdoor temperature is not below 34°, 
tbe plants will be benefited by having the window and 
door of the room open. They cannot have too much 
fresh air at any season of the year, if they are not grown 
under a Wardian case; for the exterior air always con¬ 
tains a due proportion of moisture, whilst the air of a 
room is as invariably drier than is beneficial to plants. 
A due supply of moisture in the air, as well as in the 
soil, is absolutely necessary to our room plants. To 
obtain this in the best available degree, little porous 
troughs constantly filled with water should be kept on 
the stand among the pots; and the saucers of the pots 
themselves, if made according to Hunt’s plan, may 
always have a little water remaining in them. The 
application of water to the soil requires far more atten¬ 
tion than it usually receives. Room plants mostly are 
the proteges of the ladies, who administer the water 
with their own hands; and so long as the novelty and 
leisure prompt to this attention all goes well; but no 
room plant ever existed, perhaps, which was not at 
some period of its life left to tbe tender mercies of a 
housemaid, with the frequent usual consequence of a 
deluge of water, cold from the pump, after the roots had 
become heated and parched by days of total abstinence. 
Plants so treated cannot flourish. The water should be 
allowed to stand in tbe kitchen for some hours before it 
is applied to the plants, so that it may be as warm or 
! warmer than the soil to which it is to be added. It may 
be given in dry hot weather every second day, and in 
such abundance as to pass slightly through the earth 
into the saucers. These must be emptied as often as 
water appears in them, unless they be Hunt’s saucers, in 
which case a little water may be allowed to remain, as 
before mentioned. These are general rules, to be 
modified only in the instances of plants requiring pecu¬ 
liar treatment. Among the exceptions are the different 
kinds of mimulus and some others, which are benefited 
by the saucers being constantly filled with water. 
If the thermometer does not fall below 60° during the 
day, nor to less than 34° at night, the usual room plants 
may be kept in healthy growth during the winter. There 
is a much greater variety of temperature at command, 
even in a small room, than is generally imagined. Thus, 
in one twelve feet square, with a fire burning, and having 
the door open, we have observed the thermometer on the 
floor 59°; at six feet from the floor, 07°; and at nine 
feet, 74°. During severe frosts, the higher plants are 
placed from the floor the less liable will they be to suffer 
during the night, when the fire has become extinguished. 
NEW PLANTS. 
THEIR PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES. 
The Slender-stemmed Hypocyrta (Hypocyrta gra 
cilis). — Paxton’s Flower Garden, p.123.—The name of this 
Gesncrwort is derived from hypo, beneath, and lairtos, 
inflated : alluding to the swelling out of the bottom part 
of the flowers; gracilis is sufficiently explained above. 
The different species belonging to this genus are so 
dissimilar in their outward appearances, that we find 
Martius, who first named the genus, forming two other 
genera out of two species now proved to be only so many 
species of Hypocyrta. The false genera alluded to are 
Onocogastra and Codonanthe ; and all three, singularly 
enough, present the same idea as to the inflated bottom 
