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THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
properly, however, those means must be applied with a requisite 
knowledge of the nature and natural habitat of the species, of the 
changes—if any—which have been effected in it by artificial 
treatment, of the situation for which it is intended, and of the 
kind of atmosphere to which it is to be exposed when finally 
planted out. Trees, which are the most lasting of plants, afford 
an illustration here : if the seedlings are run up in a richer soil 
and warmer situation than those in which they are planted out, 
they all become stunted, and many of them die ; whereas, if the 
plants are reared in a bleak and exposed situation, they continue 
healthy and grow well in a rich and sheltered one. It is, of 
course, the same with perennial plants, which are cultivated for 
their flowers, and therefore, in the case of them, the soil in which 
the seeds are sown should not be quite so rich as that in which 
the seedlings are afterwards to be planted out. If the plant is 
wanted very strong in growth, flowering should be prevented by 
pinching off the flower buds just as they begin to appear ; and 
if this is done, enriching and watering the ground will often 
produce a second growth in the course of the year; and many 
plants which naturally flower in summer may be by this means 
rendered autumnal ; and autumn is the finest season for flowering, 
unless where the character of the climate is very rainy. 
Increase of flowering is the second principle, or system, to the 
working of which the florist may direct his chief attention ; but 
as it is far more complicated, and the active energies are far less 
known, than those of simple growth, it is much more difficult, 
and requires a degree of knowledge and experience unequalled in 
most of the arts, and exceeded in none. Still there is one general 
principle to guide the practitioner :—few flowering plants grow 
constantly, but rather by seasons, with pauses or intervals of 
repose, longer or shorter according to the character of the climate 
and the habit of the species. Now, the flowering is the last 
effort in these seasons of growth, except the maturing and the 
ripening of the seeds ; and perhaps the latter of these is brought 
about more by the atmosphere than by any specific action of the 
plant itself. To obtain abundant flowering, in the general sense 
of the term, the cultivator must, therefore, endeavour to procure 
that state of the plant which is intermediate between its growth 
and decay if an annual, and between its growth and repose if 
perennial. This is, of course, obtained, in some degree at least, 
