16A THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, December 9, 18B6. 
home there during three parts of the month, and will 
thrive better than in a warmer and closer plant stove. 
Two things must be attended to in the case of a green¬ 
house after the middlo of October. The first is a 
gradual thinning of the climbers and danglers from the 
roof, in order to give more light to the plants on the 
stages; and, secondly, the determination must he come 
to, whether the greenhouse is to he chiefly a preservatory 
during winter, or a place where as much bloom as 
possible can be kept and exhibited. In the first case, 
in severe weather you will be safe with an average 
temperature of from 35° to 40°, with a rise from sun¬ 
shine, and air when possible. In the latter case the 
temperature should range from 45° to 50° and 55°, with 
a rise from sunshine, and a careful regulation of air. 
In the first case all tender plants should be removed 
by the middle of October, and you will have a house 
just suited for hard-wooded plants, such as Camellias, 
’Epacrises, Heaths, &c., especially when not in bloom. 
When coming into bloom they will open best in a 
medium between the extremes named. For a house to 
be well stored with bloom in winter the temperature 
should seldom be lower than from 45° to 50°. In a 
large house, therefore, the expense of a few extra tons 
of coal will make a great difference as to appearance in 
the winter months, and the presence of many flowers then 
in a mixed collection devolves on the gardener a con¬ 
stant watchfulness, and the necessity of placing his 
plants in groups, that he may treat them more according 
to their necessities; all soft-wooded plants, as a general 
rule, requiring a higher temperature, and a moister, 
closer atmosphere than those which are hard-wooded. 
Supposing, then, that here is a house that is to have 
a quantity of Heaths and Epacrises and Camellias to 
bloom in winter, but that in the month of October it 
is still gay with creepers, with Balsams, Begonias, Cle- 
rodendrums, &c., that require considerable warmth and 
closeness of atmosphere at that period, then it would 
be advisable to give as much sunlight and air as pos 
sible to the Heaths in the cold pits, and keep them there 
until all those plants were removed from the greenhouse, 
and the climbers pruned and regulated for the winter. 
If a great quantity of Chrysanthemums are to be intro¬ 
duced at the end of the month, then, though a similar 
temperature and amount of ventilation would suit them 
and the Heaths, &c., yet if the Heaths, &c., were safe 
in the cold pits, or there was the means of throwing a 
little heat into them by a hot-water pipe, so as to keep 
the air in a constant motion, and prevent it being stag¬ 
nant and moist, then it would be best to keep the plants 
there until all such ephemeral, soft-wooded things as 
Chrysanthemums are removed from the greenhouse. 
But, on the other hand, if there are no tender things 
in the greenhouse, and but few Chrysanthemums are to 
be introduced, and these in a group at one end, then, as 
the Heath is never more subject to mildew than in cold 
pits in autumn, I would move them, Epacrises, and 
Camellias, &c., to the house in the middle of October, 
after it had received a thorough cleansing; because, as a 
general rule, every plant will do better in late autumn, 
winter, and spring, upon the open shelf or stage of a 
greenhouse than in a pit; because, in the former, the light 
and air play freely all around them, while, in the latter 
case, they act chiefly on the upper surface of the plant. 
There is no disease or ailment so prejudicial to the 
Heath as mildew, and nothing promotes it more than a 
stagnant, moist atmosphere, as most of those who have 
tried to winter Heaths in common cold pits have found 
to their cost. It is not so much the cold of winter that 
is to be dreaded, as its moist fogs, when all the air you 
can give is but little better than dredging the plants in a 
cold shower-bath, and no chance of drying them until 
you have a clear, frosty day, and then the air is very 
likely as arid as it was moist before, and the plants thus 
suffer from extremes. A hot-water pipe or a flue would 
do much to remedy this, because all stagnation in the 
atmosphere could bo prevented. It is chiefly because 
the Epacris is not subject to this mildewing that I 
recommend the whole genus for mixed collections in 
preference to Heaths. 
The same preparations are necessary in a stove in 
October as in a greenhouse. Climbers that have been 
grand during the summer, and which were allowed to 
spread about almost naturally, must now be thinned out, 
to admit more light to those plants that have been sum¬ 
mering in the greenhouse, or rusticating in cold pits, 
kept rather close and moist. By the end of the month 
the climbers must be reduced very much, and the prun¬ 
ing will not only be of advantage to the plants beneath 
them, but the climbers themselves will come all the 
more vigorous next season. Directions as to the pruning 
of these climbers have already been given. In taking 
back the plants into the house, after it has received a 
good cleansing about the middle of October, the ten- 
derest plants should be taken care of first. Among 
others the beautiful Euphorbia Jacquinijiora should be 
housed in the stove by the 1st of October, and in cold 
autumns a week or two earlier. Nothing tends to weaken 
the beautiful wreaths of bloom, lessen the brightness of 
tlieir colour, and even cause the leaves to fall off, than 
allowing the roots to get chilled from standing too long 
in a greenhouse or a cold pit. The Poinsettia pul- 
cherrima is hardier, and may generally stand in a cold 
pit, well exposed to the sun, until the middle of 
October; but, in a cold night, a covering should be 
thrown over the glass even at that time, as small, 
instead of large-bract crimson leaves, I have traced to 
the points of the shoots being nipped with cold, even 
when the leaves seemed all healthy. A chilling at the 
roots will also produce the same result. From reasons 
such as these fine stems and thriving, prominent buds 
have frequently produced bract-leaves two or three, 
instead of from seven to ten inches long. Need I say 
that everything about the stove-heating medium, walls, 
&c., should be thoroughly cleansed in October? Most 
of the genera alluded to have already received attention. 
I regret that such general remarks are rather too late; 
but I will endeavour to give a short chapter of things 
to be thought about in December, and thus bring up 
our lee-way. B. Fish. 
CULTURE OF THE EXOTIC HEATHS. 
{Continued from page 140.) 
Insects. —Happily very few insects infest these charm¬ 
ing plants. I have seen very old specimens with a con¬ 
siderable number of the scale insect on their branches; 
but such old plants so infected are scarcely worth the 
trouble of cleansing. The best plan is to throw them 
away, and to procure young plants of the species. The 
green fly in spring sometimes settles upon the young 
tops. These are easily got rid of by filling the house 
or pit with tobacco-smoke, syringing them severely the 
following day to wash off the dead flies, and cleanse the 
leaves of their exuvi®. 
Diseases. —The mildew is the worst disease to which 
Heaths are subject. It is greatly increased by a close, 
long-continued damp atmosphere. In such a state of 
the air, if one plant only is affected the mildew spreads 
with fatal rapidity. The soft-leaved varieties, such as 
Erica sulpliurea, E. propendens, and E. Willmorei, are 
the most subject to it. The only cure is first to dry the 
air as much as possible, then damp the leaves of the in¬ 
fected plants, and dust them over with flowers of sulphur. 
If only one or two are infected, remove them into 
another pit or frame, dust them with sulphur, and, when 
the mildew is killed, syringe the sulphur off, and replace 
