THE EPACRIS. 105 
may be done even more quickly, besides one plant so treated is 
worth a dozen of the poor starved things we too often see. They 
occupy but two or three days in re-establishing themselves, and 
from the open texture of the soil grow away at once, and 
therefore occasion no trouble in the after-management. I hold 
it to be generally more beneficial to the roots of plants in dry 
weather, to stir the surface of the soil than to water it without 
loosening it, and thus by keeping the earth in an open state my 
plants occasion little trouble, grow freely, and are less affected 
by weather of any sort. 
Hortulanus. 
THE EPACRIS. 
Through the next three months, this beautiful genus will 
require the attention that shall lay the foundation of its future 
splendour; in other words, the plants will now require to be 
grown , and in proportion as this is effected, more or less vigorously, 
so will the production of flowers in the next season be copious 
or deficient. A few hints on the subject may therefore possess 
an interest that will repay the perusal. 
It is not sufficient in the present state of horticulture, to ac¬ 
knowledge the possession of a plant without that plant is in a 
healthy vigorous condition ; it must be either positively, or in a 
fair way to become a fine specimen ; in the general endeavour to 
obtain plants of this character, a mistake has arisen in the 
management of this genus, from the circumstance of most opera¬ 
tors merely following the usual practice of “ stopping the 
shoots in order to form bushy plants ; however correct this may 
be with other families, and notwithstanding the positive necessity 
for these plants to be well filled with branches at the bottom, it 
is certainly an erroneous method of arriving at the desired end, 
thus to continually remove the points of the shoots. 
The epacris produces its flowers from the axils of the leaves 
for the greater part of the length of the previous year’s branches, 
and if these branches are strong and properly ripened, there will be 
a long spike of flowers: how wrong then must be the practice which 
