28 
JUAXULLOA AURAXTIACA. 
dimn course will prove the best, as, if the pots are too small, the 
progress of the new shoots will be unsatisfactory and the plants 
wear a stunted appearance ; and, on the other hand, if an ex¬ 
cessive shift is indulged in, the lax habit and coarse foliage will 
as certainly detract from the merit of the production. As a 
general rule with healthy young plants, two sizes in advance will 
be sufficient, and those which are larger must be made to return 
again to the same size, or at most not more than one larger. So 
also in the pruning, the youngest may be left with three or four 
joints of the previous year’s wood, while the old ones should be 
cut still more closely. 
When the potting and pruning is done, the plants should be 
placed in the stove and encouraged to grow freely, by allowing 
them plenty of water at the roots, and an occasional refreshing 
shower from the syringe, so that by the end of July they may 
have attained their full growth, in order that sufficient time may 
be left to thoroughly ripen the new parts. The importance of this 
process, as it affects the future production of flowers, cannot be 
overrated, and with these and all other plants should form a main 
feature in their cultural management, for unless it is duly at¬ 
tended to, and the requisite measures taken to ensure it, we may 
rest assured the result will be unsatisfactory; the plant will either 
waste its energies in an abortive attempt to grow, or-produce a 
few small, ill-coloured blooms, just as it has been more or less 
ripened. 
That the desired condition mav be fullv realized, we would 
advise the plants to be taken from the stove where they have been 
growing, and removed to a sunny shelf in the greenhouse for a 
fortnight or three weeks, to prepare them for standing out of 
doors altogether, which they should do for a month or more, ac¬ 
cording to the duration of the season, in a place exposed to the 
full influence of the sun, but protected from the wet or heavy 
winds. There are very many plants, even at the present day, 
which bear the character of being difficult to bloom, and are not 
unfrequently condemned as worthless on this account, which, were 
thev thoroughly matured after their seasonal action would, we 
are convinced, yield to such treatment, and amply repay the little 
extra pains taken with them. 
We might instance many of the class that have come under 
