February 27 .] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
335 
mentioned by our correspondent, the same principles 
apply. The Verbena, being a continuous bloomer, would 
feel the check of shifting the least; and, therefore, it 
could be potted at almost any time where greater luxu¬ 
riance was required, as the hurting a little of the present 
buds and blossoms would be compensated by a greater 
number of fresh ones; for as it grows it will bloom. 
But here, as elsewhere, tire bloom will be the finest and 
most abundant, when, from obstruction, the accumulative 
process exceeds the progressive. 
Again, the strength of the flower-stems, in the case of 
a Cineraria , and in a Calceolaria, especially a herbaceous 
one, consist in the store of matter lodged in the axis of 
the plant; and therefore we encourage luxuriance of 
growth, and expose the foliage full to the light, and we 
shift and resliift, preventing the roots ever matting 
round the side of the pot, until we deem that we have 
luxuriance enough to form and carry a large head of 
bloom ; and continuing the process, the pot is soon 
filled with roots, and the bloom-stalks shortly appear. 
If, when the flower-buds were forming, or duly formed, 
we repotted the plants, we should expect weakly bloom, 
and large leaves. 
And, lastly, as respects Geraniums —for we must close. 
Continuous blooming ones, like Verbenas, would not 
suffer so much from continuous shifting and potting 
without an object. But all those Pelergoniums that 
bloom only for a period would be sure to be injured by 
indiscriminate shifting and potting. For instance, here 
are a number of strong plants cut down last August, 
potted and repotted again in December; though no 
manure-water has been given, the leaves are large and 
green, and the flat appearance of the point of the shoots 
is telling that the flower-buds are not far off; repot these 
now, and the luxuriance would be increased, and the 
flower-buds weakened. There is a lot of smaller plants, 
potted in October; the strongest shoots were all stopped 
a few weeks ago, alike to keep them back and make the 
plants bushy. They are now breaking again, and will 
be repotted directly, and will come in in succession to 
the first. Other younger plants stopped and repotted, 
aud very likely stopped and repotted again, will succeed 
these, to be again sueeeded by others; the same thing being 
to secure moderately strong shoots after stopping and 
potting, never allowing the roots to be densely matted, 
until you wish the plant to bloom, and never to pot a 
plant so supplied with roots, especially if there is the 
slightest appearance of bloom. By such treatment, 
Pelargoniums may be had in bloom all the season. If 
i a plant is not so large as you wish it, if it shows bloom 
1 sooner than you want it, shorten the shoots, wait until 
the buds in the axils of the leaves are shooting, then 
repot, and encourage the fresh shoots; aud when the 
pot is full of roots, you may expect that, before long, 
other circumstances being right, flower-buds will soon 
make their appearance. In using light soil with a little 
manure and leaf-mould for geraniums, no manure water 
should be given until the flower-buds appear In the 
case of Calceolarias, it may be given at times before, 
but more liberally after, the bloom-stalks present them¬ 
selves. R. Fish. 
HOTHOUSE DEPARTMENT. 
EXOTIC STOVE PLANTS. 
There are a great number of stove plants which 
require, or, at least, are much better grown if cultivated 
in a pit heated ■with dung, and especially during the 
early part of the year. As glass is so cheap now, no 
gardener of any pretensions ought, or need, to be without 
such an useful appendage. There is here, at Pine Apple 
Place, three such pits, of three lights each, which are so 
excellent, and answer the purpose so well, that, for the 
benefit of our readers who may now be desirous to im¬ 
prove their plant departments, we shall endeavour to 
describe them. 
The situation they are placed in is on the south side 
of a wall, and pretty close to it. They face the east, 
which is considered an advantage, because, at mid-day, 
the sun shines across the glass, and, consequently, the 
plants do not require so much shading, and may be 
exposed to the full light during the whole of the after¬ 
noon. 
To support the frames, four walls, a brick in breadth, 
are run up three feet high, one at each end, and two 
equadistant between them. These walls are the exact 
size of the three light wooden boxes set upon them. 
When the walls are built the proper height, and quite 
level, thick slates are laid from wall to wall, meeting in 
the centre of the two inner walls, aud reaching to the 
outer edge of the two outer walls. When these are 
finished, an ordinary three-light box is fitted upon the 
slates or flags, and the spaces underneath are filled with 
well-fermented stable-litter, packed in very tight, and a | 
lining, eighteen inches wide, placed against it, a little I 
higher than the walls. When all the three pits, or 
frames are at work, the spaces between each are filled 
with stable-dung, also in a state of fermentation. This 
keeps the heat in under the frames for a very long time. 
As soon as the heat is up, the slates are covered with 
coal-ashes, two or three inches thick, and the plants can 
then immediately be placed in, as there is no fear of 
burning the roots; but which there would be without 
the intervention of the slates. Our more learned gar¬ 
dening friends will immediately perceive the great 
advantage, and the many uses, to which such a structure 
may be applied. In the first place, the moist dung-heat, 
deprived of the power of burning the roots or scalding 
the leaves, is an excellent stimulant to many hard-wooded 
stove plants, which, in a common stove, are difficult to 
cause to grow with that luxuriance which they do in 
such a frame as we have described. In the next place, 
a frame of this kind is a most successful situation in 
which to strike various kinds of cuttings ; and, lastly, it 
is a very efficient nursing frame for seedlings of stove 
idauts, and also is very serviceable for holding such 
grafted stove plants as require propagating by that 
means. Even Cucumber and Melon plants may be 
raised better, and more quickly, and more safely in such 
a place, than by the old method of a common dung-bed, 
with the frame set upon the dung without any protect¬ 
ing medium. Another advantage is, that the heat can 
be renewed with greater safety, and more .effectually. 
All that is needed being to have a sufficient heap of 
dung in a good fermented condition, then to remove all 
the spent litter, and place the fresh in the cavities under 
the frames. This will renew the heat completely. 
The kinds of stove plants that are greatly benefited 
by being placed in such moist stimulating heat are, 
Aphelandra aurantiaca; Cyrtoxeras rejlexus; Gardenias, 
several species; Ixoras, the whole genus (no species of 
plants are more benefited by this treatment thau this 
fine family); Jatropha pandurcefolia; Lemonia, both 
species; Napoleona imperials ; Pavetta borbonia ; Port- 
landia grandifiora; Quassia amara; Jasminum sambac 
Jiore plena. This last-named plant, though half a 
climber, may be trained so as to allow its being placed 
in this moist heat chiefly for the purpose of destroying 
the red spider, to which it is frightfully subject. Such 
a situation, partly for the same reason, is very suitable 
for Gardenia florida pleno, G. Fortuniana, and G. ra- 
dicaus. All these are plants much valued, on account 
of their pure white, double, and powerfully, yet agree¬ 
ably, perfumed flowers, and in a moist heat, like that in 
the pit described, the plants grow freely, are of a good 
colour, and quite free from the red spider. 
After all that has been written about other means, the 
