THE WATERING OF PLANTS. 
31 
are usually the choicest in the collection, and also the most 
expensive ; and by the Sangrado system, it is rare for one 
of these unskilful waterers to keep them alive for a year. In the 
case of plants of pretty high latitudes, such as Britain, the 
rain of the cold months is seldom able to stimulate them to 
unseasonable action. Nature prepares them for the season ; that 
is, they are adapted to it, and therefore they suffer more from 
unusual drought in the summer, than from the rain of the most 
dripping winter. If, however, the rain is accompanied by a tem¬ 
perature unusually high for the season, the plants are liable to be 
excited into premature action, and this spoils them for the ensu¬ 
ing summer, and often kills them. 
If the plants are natives of very high latitudes, or of mountains 
which are so lofty, that the plants are mantled up in snow during 
their season of repose, another sort of treatment is required. The 
ground under the snow is, in severe weather, much warmer than 
the exposed places ; and if rain falls, it no more reaches the 
plants than the cold atmosphere does ; but plants so covered up 
never become dry, and therefore the roots should be kept moist, 
but no water should be poured into the pots, as that rots the 
roots instead of stimulating them to premature and therefore 
unhealthy action. 
It would be out of the question to detail the time and degree 
of watering required for every genus of flowering and ornamental 
plants ; and so we must leave that for the articles on the culture of 
single genera or species, which in our journal are supplied either 
in substance, or as they appear in print, by the actual cultivators. 
But though we cannot give the detailed operations, we may 
state a few of those leading principles, in obedience to which a 
skilful gardener so regulates watering in quantity, as to have his 
plants always in healthy condition. 
The first thing to be considered is the water itself; it should, 
if obtainable, be soft water, that is, water containing no earthy 
salts, and special care should be taken that it is free from all 
oxides or salts of iron, which are highly injurious to vegetation, 
even to the coarse vegetation of a moor or marsh. Water of the 
proper quality being obtained, the next thing to be considered is 
the state in which it should be given to the plants. It should 
be as nearly as possible of their own temperature ; and as 
yvater is, generally speaking, naturally a little below that, it 
