The Garden Under Glass

GARE OF YOUNG PLANTS 277 leaf-soil or mushroom manure they have a moist rooting medium at their disposal. When pricking out in a frame or on a patch of ground in the open it is necessary to have two boards—one to kneel on and the other on which to set the toes. Immediately after pricking out, the plantlets should receive a good watering, and if the weather be bright a light shading for a day or so will help to pull them together again. Pricking off and removal to a lower temperature should not come too closely together. The young plants must have time to gathei themselves up after one check before they are called upon to withstand another. A week should elapse before the young plants are brought to a lower temperature. Ill-health in Plants Those who make a point of having plants in their Windows frequently complain about their looking sickly. There may, of course, be many causes for this. It is charitable to supposc that the fumes of gas or of oil lamps or the fluctuations of temperature bring the mischief; but if truth be looked upon as a greater virtue than charity, it would be well to ascribe it in the majority of cases to over-watering, and consequent sourness of soil. In the endeavour to do the plant good and bring about a state of good health, it is usual to give it some stimulant in the way of artificial manure, or the well-nigh inevitable dose of cold tea, or to put it into another pot. To give such a plant stimulants of any kind is altogether wrong and tends to hasten its death. Plants in ill-health resemble people in this respect, that in order to bring about a state of robust health it is necessary to treat them as if they were again quite young. They should be afforded a slightly warmer temperature, be kept close and free from draught,