86 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
and peat, with all the turf-sticks, &c. contained in it, should be 
well chopped with the spade and mixed with some rich garden 
mould; this will' form a compost to fill up the remaining space, 
and in which almost any plant will thrive. The most proper 
time for placing the plants in this their new situation is the 
present month, May; our reasons for considering it best is that 
danger from frost being past, the new wood will have more time 
to become matured before the approach of winter. With Ca¬ 
mellias, however, it is necessary that the young shoots be pretty 
firm, or they are liable to receive a check which it is difficult to 
get them over. Immediately after planting, the whole bed 
should be well watered; but it is preferable to defer the nailing 
and training until the plants have taken a little hold, after which 
they should be extended as far as possible, and pruned rather 
thin, that the new branches may have the full influence of sun 
and air. 
Ihe means of protection to be used through the winter should 
be of the simplest construction possible. A light wooden rail, 
fastened to the top of the wall, from which slanting pieces de¬ 
pend, to the ground, at a distance of about four feet from each 
other, and the lower end projecting about the same from the 
foot of the wall, will be all the framework necessary; on which 
a piece or pieces of flexible canvass may run by means of lines 
and pulleys, so as to allow of its being rolled up or down easily. 
The use of continuing the covering so far from the base of the 
wall is to retain about the plants the radiated heat given off 
from the surface of the earth beneath the canvass. 
W ith this simple contrivance, which may be removed entirely 
in summer, very many fine plants may be grown to a greater 
luxuriance than is often seen when completely under glass. In 
the management of these walls it must be particularly observed 
to avoid anything like an early excitement; in the early spring 
months w T e frequently have a few hours of hot sunshine, suc¬ 
ceeded by cutting winds or frost, these changes are more inju¬ 
rious to the plants than the severest continued weather, from 
the action of the sun causing a reaction in the system of the 
plant, which, ever ready to recommence its seasonal activity, 
pushes its sap in a very short time to the extremities of the 
shoots, and there, on the succession of cold to this brief impulse, 
it becomes coagulated or frozen, and so distends the whole tis- 
