September 18.] 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
385 
1 young plant, and tracing out the remainder of the roots, 
i and packing them in the new soil, are more likely to be 
I attended with success; hut whether soaked previously 
! to repotting or not, the soaking after potting would, in 
; the case of all rather tender things, be absolutely ruinous. 
The unoccupied soil, thus soaked with moisture, would 
become quite soured, and unfitted for the roots entering 
it when they reached it. In such circumstances, mois- 
I tening the soil only so far as the roots extend, is the 
great source of success with large shifts. 
3. The soaking of plants in water, so as to get rid of 
all the earth, answers extremely well in the case of all 
those bulbs and other plants (and more would answer 
than are generally tried) that, after being grown for a 
time in soil, may be removed to glasses, and bloomed in 
water. The plants with thick fleshy, and but few fibrous, 
roots, generally answer best for this purpose. By this 
means our friends with a cellar, or a dark room, may 
easily keep up a succession of flowers, from bulbs, in 
their windows in winter. 
4. The same system would answer well in the case of 
all those Lilliputian miniature pot specimens, where two 
or three inches of sifted soil is all that is allowed for a 
plant to occupy. In such a case soaking before would 
be advisable, so as to have all the soil fresh; and soak¬ 
ing afterwards could do no great harm. 
5. Plants cut down after blooming, allowed to break, 
and then repotted into smaller pots, to be again once or 
more shifted before they show their blooming buds, will 
often do well with this soaking-before-potting system. 
For instance: just now there is a nice Pelargonium, the 
young shoots of which, after being cut down, are nearly 
one inch in length. As it seems healthy, I should be 
satisfied with taking it to the potting shed, reducing the 
ball, after seeing it was previously moist enough, getting 
rid of a good portion of the old soil, saving all the best 
of the fibres and roots, removing only the dead and de¬ 
caying, and transferring all to a pot of the same size, 
but more likely to one or two sizes less. But here, again, 
is a superior variety still, but not so healthy-looking, 
and it is even in a larger pot, and, instead of soaking, 
the soil seems too moist already. Take such a plant to 
the potting-bench, and, ten-to-one, the very weight of 
the water in the space unoccupied by roots and soil would 
cause the few best roots to be lacerated and destroyed. 
Take it carefully out of the pot, hold the whole with your 
two hands, and thus holding it, agitate it as our friend 
proposes in a tub of water; continue the agitation, and 
let your hands gradually approach the collar of the plant, 
until at length you have got nothing but the top and 
the few roots remaining. If the latter are very long and 
weak, you will act rightly in shortening them a little, 
but keeping the very best. Without twisting them 
greatly, pack them among light soil iu a much smaller 
pot—the smaller, if it will hold them, the better. But 
now, as the roots are gorged with moisture, and the soil, 
though not wringing wet, is not dry, you must give little 
water at the root for some time, until fresh growth there 
has commenced; and this you must hasten by shading 
the few green leaves you have got from bright sunshine, 
by putting a bell-glass over them, if you have such a 
thing, and, above all, by dusting with water from a 
syringe, and sponging the stems and leaves. Only, in 
such circumstances, keep the tops all right, and you soon 
will have such abundance of liealtby roots that, ere long, 
the necessity of watering them often will tell you that 
more feeding ground is required. 
0. Plants that flower for a certain period every year, 
and require a season of rest before blooming so well 
again, are greatly benefited, when cultivated in pots, by 
receiving a soaking before potting them afresh, prepara¬ 
tory to fresh growth. This will hold good in a great 
many cases of deciduous plants, or those which we make 
such from our peculiar treatment. Take the Fuchsia 
for an example. Here are the remains of some nice 
plants in a window; the flowers are now small and 
scanty, and leaves are yellow and falling off—remove 
them altogether, and put something more flourishing in 
their stead. Place them in the best situation you can 
command out-of-doors for sun and air, give them water 
to the end of the month, and then but little, and before 
frost transfer them to a cellar, a garret, or an empty 
room—a good shed, a barn, or a stable will do as well. 
Protect the stem in severe weather; but to make doubly 
sure and save the trouble of watering, pack the pots 
among dry moss, hay, sawdust, &c. If you have given 
them no heat, by March or April the buds will be break¬ 
ing, and then you must think of potting them. If you 
wish large specimens, and can give them room, shaking 
oil' a quantity of the soil, and repotting again in a 
similar or a larger pot, will do admirably. If you wish 
for the greatest amount of beauty in little room, then 
soak the plants in water from 55° to 60°, and let all the 
earth go with it, but save the roots. Allow these roots 
to soak, examine them, prune only if necessary from 
weakness and decay, and repot in rich, but very light, 
compost, into similar, or rather smaller, pots, to be 
again reshifted. Here, as in all similar cases, water 
can only be safely given in quantities at the root, in 
proportion as the pot is small. If large, little or none 
should be given until fresh growth has taken place, and 
that should be encouraged more by application of water 
on the leaves and stems than at the roots. When 
growth is proceeding, but before going any length, 
pruning should take place, either by snagging in near 
to the stem, cutting down near to the surface, or merely 
removing the mere points of the shoots that are decayed. 
By the last, blooms will be produced earlier; by the 
two former, finer bloom and more luxuriant plants will 
be obtained. In jdacing a good quantity of good roots 
in a small pot, soaking afterwards could do little harm. 
In every other case it would be reprehensible and in¬ 
jurious. 
These few remarks may help still further to enable 
beginners to see their way. As they are, they have been 
amply and extensively tested by experience. 11. Fish. 
HOTHOUSE DEPARTMENT. 
EXOTIC STOVE PLANTS. 
Tillandsia. —A genus of handsome stove-plants be¬ 
longing to the natural order, Bromelworts. They are 
found in the hottest parts of the world, and, from the 
peculiar mode of growth, are often of service to the 
weary and exhausted traveller. The leaves are set round 
the stem of the plant, standing upright in a circle, 
wrapping over each other so closely that they are capable 
of holding water, and when the plants are large there 
may be found nearly a quart of water in the hollow of a 
single plant. In such hot regions, we may easily 
imagine how grateful and refreshing to the thirsty 
throat and parched lip such a supply of water would be. 
And the water is deposited there not only by the rains 
that fall—for that would be a very uncertain, and soon- 
exhausted source—but by the dews, that, as is well- 
known, fall copiously during the night in warm latitudes. 
The leaves of many species of Tillandsia, and plants be¬ 
longing to the same order, are so formed as to catch the 
greatest quantity of this dew water. This is one of the 
many wise provisions of the Giver of all good to supply, 
as it were incidentally, the wants of his creatures. 
When the bason, or cup, formed by the leaves is full, the 
water runs over and supplies the roots of the plants with 
moisture in the hottest and driest of seasons, Hence, 
these plants are found flourishing like a green bay-tree, 
when most other plants are drooping with the great 
