greenhouse, from which they will be removed into the conservatory before the shelves will be wanted for the greenhouse plants proper.

It is very necessary to attend to the large plants not hitherto renewed and refreshed this month, in order that they may make new roots before winter. The cuttings, etc., should be kept in the shade for about a fortnight, being watered moderately. As soon as these plants are disposed of, plant your Ixias, La Perousias, and all tender bulbs in small pots, one or more together, as their size shall dictate; after potting, set them on the upper shelves near the glass; water them but little till they begin to show leaves, as much water will rot them; but after they begin to grow, give water as to other plants.

Get all your tender stock plants into the house before the 15th of the month, and most of the more hardy ones which you propose to show during the season by the 20th, as a single night of severe cold, even without frost, might seriously injure the vigorous color of their foliage.

The growth and success of pot plants depend very much on the compost used and the method of potting, which should be as follows: The earth with which the pots are filled must not be too rich, as this tends to over-stimulate the young plant and change flower-buds into leaves; besides, plants in a greenhouse may be fed like fires in a furnace; if we want an increased development we can easily get it by watering with dilutions of manure; or we can check the growth, if that be our wish, by withholding the usual supply of water. Plants, whether in the outside earth or in pots, derive but a small proportion of their nutriment from the earth in which they stand. Various experiments carefully tried, where all the modifying circumstances were controllable, have shown that however meagre the soil, even if it be pure-washed river sand, any plant.selected could be made to thrive or dwindle just in proportion to the amount of simple or enriched water, or of pure or impregnated air, which should be supplied. Were there room in the present treatise to cite the experiments of Bousingault and others, we could prove that the judicious gardener, by studying the constituent parts of the plants he is growing and the constituent parts of the materials which seem most largely to contribute to their

perfect development, can have them as much under his control as the engineer his engine. The experiments made in this matter have pertained to out-of-door culture, and were made with the hope of rendering the farmer more independent of varieties of soils and seasons in getting large crops, and they have shown most conclusively that agriculture need not be a matter of chance, but that farming operations can be conducted with almost the same certainty as manufacturing. If this be true on the large scale of farming, where the temperature, atmosphere, and rain are beyond control, how much more securely can the gardener guide the growth of his plants under a glass roof, where all the uncertain elements of growth can be supplied with graduated exactness.

The earth in which we put plants may be considered in the light of a sponge which shall absorb, retain, and give out the food the plant needs to facilitate its perfect development. The essentials, therefore, are a carbonaceous character, as carbonaceous materials are sponges for the absorption of the nutritious gases; a loose and porous mechanical texture which will allow the water applied to percolate readily to the fibrous roots of the plants, and then to drain away quickly if it be in excess; and a due supply of those minerals usually called salts, such as lime, potash, soda, etc., which in small but distinct amounts are all important to the formation of healthy vegetable tissue.

COMPOST POTTING.- Make your compost one-third leaf mould, one-third rich loam, one-third river sand; mix these materials well together, and to every bushel or thereabouts (for there is no need of special care), about a shovelful of lime, ashes, or gypsum. Having your material ready, set your pot before you upon the potting shelf; fill it about one-fifth with broken crocks* for drainage, as nothing injures plants more than to allow their roots to be supersaturated. Mildew, blight, a sickly growth, are all consequents of imperfect drainage, and with the single exception of too much

* Oyster shells are as good as, and in the opinion of some cultivators better than, crocks for drainage, as the roots of the plant find in them material for food.

and injudiciously applied heat, nothing oftener destroys plants than standing water. Were we oftener to think of the lesson which nature teaches us in the woods and fields, we should make fewer mistakes in this matter. No tree, shrub, or plant, that is a native of dry uplands, will thrive or even live when transplanted to a swamp; and the native of a swamp will thrive no better if subjected to a corresponding change; yet we must attribute the respective failures of the plants to too much or too little water. Having then the pot before us with the broken crocks in the bottom (which are the fragments of old and imperfect pots, hammered together till they are reduced to pieces varying from the size of a finger nail to an inch or more square), cover them about an inch deep (varying the depth a little to suit the plant in hand) with your compost; take the plant in the left hand and set it into the pot, being careful not to set it deeper than it stood before, and keeping the crown of the roots (the point where the roots and stem join), just below the top of the pot; with the right hand, pour in the prepared compost on either side, occasionally settling the earth into the roots with the finger or with a stick, and gently shaking the plant that the earth shall be well packed among the small roots. Go on in this way till the pot is full; then take it in both hands and slightly shake the pot, giving it a knock or jostle against the shelf, which will firmly settle all together and leave the plant standing steady and even in the middle of the pot. After this, shower it from the rose of the watering pot sufficiently to moisten the earth throughout. The plant must now be set in the shade and watered in the same way daily for ten days or a fortnight, after which it may take its proper place on the greenhouse shelves. If the plant has been newly taken from the ground, the top should be judiciously pruned so as to balance the mutilation of the roots, and give it a well-proportioned shape. Cut away all the broken roots, and be careful in selecting your pot to get one large enough to contain the main roots without much bending. Remember, however, that we do not depend upon the old roots for the main support of the plant; for that, we look to the multitude of new and fibrous roots, which the treatment just described will cause to spring out from all parts of the old roots, and which will rapidly increase till

they quite fill the pot. So long as the roots are thus making and filling the pot, the leaves and woody parts of the plant will increase, and there will be no indication of flowering till the roots have occupied all the space allotted to them.

With the compost just described, there will be no need of manure-water for awhile, but when the flower-buds begin to form there will be too little nutriment in the earth to supply the new and increased demands of the plant, and to secure a satisfactory bloom, we must add occasionally a little guano or liquid manure to the water. The best way to prepare a liquid manure, is to set upon a shelf in some convenient place an old vinegar or other barrel that is tight, provided with a faucet. The shelf must be high enough to allow a watering pot or pail to stand under the faucet. In the bottom of this barrel, and just above the faucet, make a staging of two sets of parallel strips of wood, crossed at right angles, upon which the manure may rest, and through which the water may run as it percolates the manure.

down well. Pour in water slowly till the barrel is full; let it stand for two or three days before you begin to draw off. At first this. water must be diluted to be safely used, one part manure-water

to at least three of pure water, but as the plant becomes accustomed to it, stronger doses may be given. Such a barrel of manure will bear several saturations with water before all its strength is drawn out.

If guano is used, put one-quarter of a pound to two gallons of water; let it stand twenty-four hours, then use like the water from the barrel. If the guano-water is prepared in a barrel, the staging must be covered with a fine wire or a cloth-strainer, to retain the

finer particles. This proportion of guano to water is advised on the supposition that the guano is of the best quality. Such guano is, however, scarcely to be obtained, and consequently the best way is to make what seems a solution of moderate strength, and then be guided by experience as to weakening or strengthening it.

This application of liquid manure is to be continued only while the buds are forming, as it will, if used after they begin to expand, often stimulate the plant enough to turn them into leaves. This is particularly the case with hard wooded plants like Daphnes, Camelias, etc., to which liquid manure should be applied only during the dormant or growing, not the blossoming, season. It seldom happens to Roses or Pelargoniums, as they are gross feeders.

Surprising as are the effects of liquid manure, they are no more than should be expected, for the food of plants must be diluted before it can be absorbed by the spongioles of the roots, and such dilution is the only chemical or mechanical means to which nature resorts for the development of the crops, flowers, etc., in the fields. The power which guano in solution exerts, is greater than that of any other manure, and indeed in its dry state it is likely to injure rather than benefit vegetation. In the greenhouse, whether applied as we have directed, or put on the surface in powder, no injury need be apprehended, as the daily watering will in the latter case soon carry it below the surface; but when used on a large scale in agriculture, whether as a top-dressing or ploughed in, its good effect depends entirely on the amount of rain that falls during the season.

STOCK PLANTS.-As yet we have made no mention of other classes of plants which are to be attended to in August.

First, Stock pot plants. These will generally be Camelias, Daphnes, Cape Jessamines, Laurestinus, Lemon Verbenas, and other hard wooded plants which grow too rankly when planted in the ground, or which if planted out would be liable to injury from sun, wind, and transplantation. The way to treat such plants in the late spring or early summer will of course be described when we arrive at the proper time. What we have now to do is to take find them. Such of them as have outgrown their pots

them

as we

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