Page:On the cultivation of the plants belonging to the natural order of Proteeae.djvu/33

 Rh of Fahrenheit during the night, if the external air was so cold; yet none of the plants usually kept in green houses suffered by it, and the plan there pursued, for sixteen winters, was never to permit a plant to grow at all during that season, if it could be prevented; bringing them out in spring, as nearly as possible with the same foliage, which they had when housed in autumn.

In training and pruning these plants, the knife must be used with caution; as they advance in stature, such as are weak or straggling, ought to have the principal stem neatly tied up to a stick, and when they are from two to three feet high, by cutting off the tender branches, they may be formed into narrow or spreading heads, according to the taste or caprice of the owner. At Clapham, they were generally left to assume their natural direction and form; only removing any very luxuriant branches, when ill placed, before they became old and woody. Nothing injures these plants more than crowding them close together; and I cannot avoid the hazard of giving offence to some of my best friends, by saying, that in many collections about London, both large and small, the wisest thing the owners could do, would be to order a third part of their plants, to be cut into faggots, for lighting the fire, of the greenhouse, in frosty weather.

A large portion of water is necessary for most of these plants in dry seasons; and it should if possible be such, as has been exposed to the sun and air, several days. In the excessively hot weeks of summer, give it them every evening about sunset, so as to soak the whole pot thoroughly, but in such weather, never apply it in the middle of the day, if it can be avoided; for I have seen plants killed by watering them, when the earth and pot were in all probability, at that instant heated by the sun, to more than 100degrees of Fahrenheit. If by accidental neglect of watering the preceding evening, any plant is discovered flagging so much in the